The education sector is riddled with most instances of public corruption and irregularities in Uttar Pradesh, in the state Lok Ayukta. The irregularities relate to the alleged encroachment on the forest Gram Sabha Land and siphoning off local area development (LAD) funds by politicians. Locals are demanding a probe into the allegations.

A medical school admission examinations scandal in India has turned into a veritable whodunit with thousands of arrests, mysterious deaths and the suspected involvement of top politicians and bureaucrats.

In the season of examination results and college admissions, we are again reminded of the dismal condition of the Indian education system. The Punjab School Education Board has, in an act of benevolence, granted 30 grace marks to Class 12 students. This helped lift the state’s pass percentage from 54% to 76%. In Gujarat, the pass percentage in Class 10 dropped from 73% in 2014-15 to 63% this year — which the state education minister attributes to the installation of CCTV cameras in examination centres that have checked cheating. Many Class 10 students in Gujarat could not answer elementary questions in a retest, despite securing over 80% in the objective section of the mathematics paper.

The police accused of corruption and cheating the chairperson in the Haryana State Higher Education, an autonomous body created to promote academic excellence in the state. The main allegations against him include the appointment of staff in the university against the norms, opening of new educational centres, which were not required, extending favouritism, illegal withdrawal of university funds and spending the same on family’s personal expenses by misusing his official position.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stepped up an offensive against the Delhi government and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over corruption in the construction of classrooms. For the 1,033 schools under the Delhi government, the amount of the budget was 23.51 per cent, while for the 743 schools under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Delhi government allotted only 1.46 per cent from the budget. AAP increased the cost of projects for the benefit of only those it favoured.