The deteriorating situation in South Waziristan’s education system demands urgent measures. A teacher from the Servaki division revealed that funds allocated for the construction of washrooms and play areas have vanished, benefiting only the office administration and school owners. Moreover, it has become a trend for school owners to extort money from teachers, often amounting to 1000 to 12000 rupees per teacher per month. Teachers who refuse to comply with such demands are subjected to false reports filed against them, resulting in inquiries initiated by the District Education Office.

Four Eastern Cape Department of Education officials and a businessman are facing charges of corruption, fraud, theft, and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act for R59 million meant for schoolbooks. Under the pretence that schools were adequately resourced with textbooks, they decided without permission from the National Treasury to shift and use 80% of the budget for the procurement of supplementary resource material, mainly IT equipment and photocopiers.

As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, a project to use ZAR866 million (US$60 million) to build a state-of-the-art technical and vocational education and training college in one of South Africa’s poorest townships could not proceed. The project was stopped by the Minister of Higher Education, but the money has not been returned to the National Treasury or accounted for in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act regulations.

A former Executive secretary of the Lagos State Scholarship Board has been charged with 8 counts of criminal conversion of N127 million belonging to the scholarship board. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s report revealed that the funds meant for students’ scholarship payments, staff welfare and office renovation had been used for personal purposes.

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.

Reports indicated that 14.6 million Iranians were expected to start school but the country was unprepared to accommodate them. A big number of dilapidated institutions have not received the necessary funding for reconstruction and furthermore, it was indicated that there was a shortage of around 100,000 teachers across the country. Students at the Amir Kabir University in Tehran participated in a demonstration against corrupt practices that are making their fees rise beyond all affordability.

A number of senior officials in the Eastern Cape have been accused of corruption in relation to an R1 billion-school nutrition programme in the province; another case involves irregularities in relation to school infrastructure provisioning or allegations of corruption in the awarding of a contract to EduSolutions by the Limpopo Department of Education. The contract for the procurement of textbooks for schools in the province was canceled in 2012 after millions had been paid to EduSolutions.

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.

Politicians, senior education officials, headmasters, and businesspeople are taking advantage of their positions to line their pockets with state funds. According to a study, the acts of corruption in Thailand range from the embezzling of state funds, colluding to mark up prices of educational and school construction materials, as well as demanding bribes from parents who want their children to be enrolled in a particular school. Irresponsible officials and school directors steal about 30% of the total budget.

The standards of education in post-primary schools in Nigeria has considerably decreased. Dilapidation, unhealthy and stinking learning environments, lack of materials for required teaching and low morale in teaching staff are among the factors responsible for the critical state of the unity schools. There are also allegations of mismanagement of funds by administrators and other officials of the unity schools.