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Despite the growth of academic institutions in Nigeria, the Federal and State Governments have failed to meet the increasing demand for university and polytechnic education, resulting in the adoption of a quota system. This practice, structured on favouritism towards indigenes of a particular state over others, has led many denied admission seekers to commit fraud. Meanwhile, federal institutions in some areas are under-enrolled and others over-crowded, resulting in misuse and over-use of resources.

Since 2009, education and health have suffered cuts and multiple corruption scandals. Over the past decade, spending on education and culture has dropped from 32.9% of the central government budget to 19.9%. Students have no library, no computer classes, and requests for funding to replace asbestos seeping from a primary school’s roof in San Pedro Sula were declined by central and local authorities. ‘The teachers and parents raised $1,500 through fundraising events and collection tins at traffic lights to pay for repairs’ said a primary school teacher.

Lebanon ranks 143rd out of 180 countries in the world in 2017 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. The President of the Central Inspectorate states that the Ministry of Education has "reduced teachers' working hours" and is carrying out recruitments, "which are not necessary”. He announced unexpected visits to public administrations in 2019 as part of the fight against corruption in order to introduce a tool to monitor recruitment.

Tales of corruption in Nigeria are many in number. One example is the case of the clerk at the state examinations board who was called to account for the disappearance of $100,000 in exam fees. An analyst of the country says: "There's this perception among officials in Nigeria that national government is there to divide up the booty of oil wealth." That political culture then filters through to layers below, to the point where even local police or school teachers or receptionists at public hospitals may consider it their right to demand bribes. "It's about people monetizing their position in society so that even people with the lowest amount of authority will use that to extract a small amount."

Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission this month issued a public notice listing 153 illegal universities and degree-awarding institutions. A large number of illegal universities mentioned in the HEC notice do not exist, some are run from apartments and commercial buildings and issue degrees not recognised by higher education authorities of the federal or provincial governments. Academics say, however, the rising trend of fake universities cannot be discouraged without punitive action against the management of the bogus institutions.

The government has uncovered a total of 65,198 ghost students in primary and secondary schools across the country, thus saving 931.3m ‒ which would have been allocated for the phantom students for 2016/2017 fiscal year. The Minister of State, President's Office, Regional Administration and Local Government said that out of 65,198 non-existing students, 52,783 have been framed in primary schools and 12,415 in secondary schools.