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Federal government has blacklisted 232 individuals from participating in the conduct of examinations. The affected persons include school principals, supervisors, invigilators and examiners. 324 secondary schools had earlier been derecognized as centers for public examinations. The state had over 50 of its schools blacklisted in the exercise.

The 11th Inter-provincial education ministers' meeting has approved a new textbook policy. This includes that the provincial textbook boards should invite book development proposals from all stakeholders concerned, including private publishers. Submitted books would be evaluated and ranked. The Ministry of Education will establish five resource centres in each textbook board for upgrading the capacity of small publishers.

According to an opposition leader, the businessman Agarwal's pledge last week of $1-billion to set up Vedanta University, in the South Indian state of Orissa, is a gimmick to divert attention from his corrupt mining deal with the state's government. The $1-billion pledge, which if realized would be the largest gift ever made to a higher-education institution, is intended to create a multidisciplinary elite university for 100,000 students that would open in 2008.

MPIGI district has dismissed over 73 primary school head teachers over incompetence and lack of proper academic qualifications. About 50 schools were given new head teachers. Over 100 teachers were examined. The exercise was part of the district's primary schools re-organisation programme aimed at improving education standards.

Over 300 ghost teachers have been registered in universal primary education schools in the Mukono district. According to the Chairman of the district education committee, five schools in the remote areas were headed by one person. The high number of fake teachers has led to poor performance in schools because of very few teachers compared to the number on the payroll.

The Mayor of Ngoma District has issued a stern warning to school headmasters who inflate school registers with non-existent students and charge high fees on students sponsored by charity organisations. The authorities would punish anyone found guilty.