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About 22,556 ghost workers were discovered in local government pay system in Borno after two verifications exercises on local government staff and primary teachers. Reports show that N183.6m has been recovered in bogus teacher’s salary while N237m from ghost local government staff. The total number of primary school teachers in the 27 local government areas was 26,450 before the verification, however, 2, 204 did not appear before the committee.

1,500 ghost teachers employed by the Niger State Universal Basic Education Board have been found in primary schools A report revealed that 28,058 personnel were on the payroll of the board but that only 26,070 showed up for the screening. 1,000 of the teachers who appeared for screening were not qualified to teach any primary school in the state as they "cannot read and write.

The cases of corruption in the education sector in Oyo State are ranging from reports of school administrators collecting money, students sitting mock exams, officials asking for grants from principals before distributing the school materials the government purchased for students to receiving money from teachers to deploy them to preferred areas. The governor announced that dismissal and prosecution awaited anyone who sabotaged government efforts through corrupt practices.

In order to capture teachers’ daily attendance, the State Government introduced fingerprint devices in 219 secondary schools under the Ministry. The new system will not only help reduce teacher absenteeism in primary and secondary schools but also eliminate ghost workers. The State Commissioner for Education reported that 53.5 per cent of teachers do not show up for work at all.

Anti-corruption advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued Delta State governor over poor funding of primary education in his state. His administration has received N7.8bn from Universal Basic Education Commission, apart from other funds from the Federal Government. Around 1,124 primary schools across the state are in a shambles, with very poor teaching facilities. Moreover, SERAP pointed out the case of a student who was sent home because her parents could not afford the illegal school fee of N900.

Exam malpractice is a highly organized "industry" between school proprietors, officials of the State Ministry of Education, officials of West African School Certificate examination, invigilators, machineries and the students themselves. According to a study, this is a result of poor implementation of examination rules, no fear of punishment, inadequate preparation for the exams, the disloyalty of examination body staff and students and parental threats. Many parents prefer to bribe the examiner rather than pay for extra lessons for their child, which may still not result in examination success.

A senior lawyer and human right activist has called for proper monitoring and utilization of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Fund. The UBE fund is an annual grant by the federal government to help states upgrade their primary education facilities in order to provide a good education for children across the nation. In his statement, the activist warned that the fund may be diverted by politicians desperately looking for money to buy votes during the forthcoming general election in the country. He said the World Bank gave Nigeria a grant $611 million (N219 billion) for the UBE scheme.

At the opening ceremony of the zonal conference of the Association of Women in Colleges of Education (WICE), the Provost of the College of Education, decried the existence of corrupt practices in schools. He said corruption can be reduced when people embraced the principles of transparency, integrity and accountability in public and private transaction. The theme of the conference was: “The role of education in curbing corruption and youth unemployment in the 21st Century.”