Search Page

A high-ranking Department of Education employee used his position to rip off $5 billion from the Government money that should have been spent on public schools. According to the State's anti-corruption, watchdog IBAC, for 7 years he covered his tracks by organizing fake invoices sent from companies owned by him and his friends and family that did not do any work.

Two vice-chancellors and a former Rwandan prime minister were accused of nepotism and mismanagement of university finances. Three private universities were shut down by the Ministry of Education from 1 July 2020 after failing to meet education quality standards and to pay staff, despite strict rules for students who are required to pay fees before being admitted. The Higher Education Council will continue to evaluate institutions regularly and take action against universities with similar cases before schools reopen in September.

Corruption is “a pernicious undercurrent” in every country, writes a researcher at International Higher Education at Boston College. In Armenia, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine, instructors face the dilemma of either ignoring cheating or taking the risk of dismissing students whose fees sustain the university. One study in Russia found that 72% of students in public universities had plagiarized from the internet. In India, the “survival of many small private universities depends on payments to government officials, recruiters and visiting committees, and fees paid by non-attending students”.

In two years, nearly 250 students in one Chinese province have been stripped of their university entrance exam results. Despite her excellent grades, a high school student in Shandong province failed twice her gaokao, the national entrance exam to a public university. Her failure was in fact due to the usurpation of her identity and positive results by the daughter of one of her high school teachers.

The Financial Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation at the Ministry of Education regarding the education provided to Syrian refugee students funded by the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union, and Germany. The list of children enrolled for evening classes in the 346 State schools includes a far greater number of students than those who actually attend them. The amount missing is calculated by multiplying the number of 15,000 ghost students to the $600 that donors allocate each year for every registered student. $9 million disappears each year since 2014.

In Ghana, it is common to find journalists, university teachers, and government officials plagiarizing other people’s works. Recently, a senior lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, who is also the Head of the Banking and Finance Department, plagiarized a Facebook post and sent it to the Daily Graphic, which published it, both online and in print. When the lecturer was caught, he denied the offense, until the author of the content found sufficient evidence against him. University authorities have never investigated the case.

287,000 ghost students were found registered in schools under the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) programme. Schools, government officials, and NGOs are suspected to be involved in the preparation of a fake record Rs1.1 billion per year. A special audit of the funds received by PEF is being conducted and strict measures will be taken against the officers involved in this corruption case.

The FBI announced that the former Education Secretary has been charged with allegations that she used her position to give 1,034 square feet of a school to a company in exchange for financial benefits. If found guilty, she could face sentences of up to 10 years for conspiracy and bribery, and up to 20 years for wire fraud.