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The Kaduna State government has uncovered about 33 phony primary schools in some local government areas. The fake schools were detected during the first phase of biometric verification exercise of state employees ordered by the Governor. The government, which pays about N3 billion monthly as salaries and allowances to its employees, was said to have saved N120 million from fake employee disbursements in the first phase of the exercise.

The Senate Committee on Education last week at the 2016 budget defence noted that it uncovered about N10 Billion hidden in the budget of parastatals by the Federal Ministry of Education. The Chairman of Senate Committee on Higher Education, has said that the N10 billion padding reported to be discovered in the education budget is meant for the Universal basic Education Commission and a typographical error from the office of the National Planning and Budget. The Senator said the issue was not with the ministry of education and that it had been resolved by the house and the senate and would be amended in the budget.

Tertiary education unions in Nigeria are campaigning against a Treasury Single Account, implemented by the President to checkmate fraud and corruption in federal institutions and agencies, including in the education sector. The unions are worried about delayed salary payments and crippled grants from foreign partners for training and research. Tertiary education unions say that partners have threatened to withdraw financial support if the rigid new system is not made more flexible.

The acting Dean of the Faculty of Education, Sokoto State University calls on the president to beam his search light on corruption in education for the purpose of a general overhaul, following his interest in the education sector demonstrated through his second-to-none budgetary provisions. Both corruption and the corrupt practices involved in anti-corruption politics in Nigeria are traceable to the value-free instructional practices in Nigerian schools. It takes a fraudulent and morally bankrupt teacher just a class or lesson to destroy through his or her value-free instructional practices whatever gains are recorded in the on-going anti-corruption project.

The Federal Government says it will immediately begin to investigate universities operating multiple accounts in violation of the Treasury Single Account policy of the government in order to checkmate corrupt practices in the nation’s universities, adding that concrete efforts would be made to protect whistleblowers in the country as part of the ongoing anti- corruption crusade. The government also said it intends to find an alternative means of sourcing funds for the revitalisation of infrastructure in the universities.

Calls for greater government action have been made as university students have emerged as prime targets for Ponzi scheme fraud. This after at least 4,000 students from one university were threatened with expulsion after they diverted their tuition fees worth a total of US$6.5 million into an online Ponzi scheme which has since suspended its operations without explanation. At Osun State University over 4,000 students were served with notice that they may be expelled from the university if they failed to pay, by the end of February, all outstanding tuition fees. At a time of severe economic recession, the loss of the investment adds pressure on parents, many of who are victims of Nigeria’s massive unemployment rate.

The post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination or post- gives universities a second chance to screen prospective students who have come through the national matriculation examination system. Earlier this year, the Education Minister announced that the government had lifted a ban imposed in June 2016 on the post-UTME. But the Ministerwarned against institutions charging exorbitant fees for the exam and directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board or JAMB to compile a list of institutions charging above NGN2,000 (US$5.50), according to a local media report.