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Massive corruption has hit the education sector with district education officials reportedly demanding various amounts of money to interview temporary teachers to fill in vacant posts. The education officials are charging the desperate untrained teachers for application forms which are normally distributed for free.

A human resources assistant in the Education ministry is in the courts after she fraudulently recruited 31 unqualified teachers. The accused is charged with 'Criminal abuse of office'. According to prosecutors, between October last year and February this year she connived with eight accomplices who have already appeared in court and hatched a plan to misrepresent to their employer and converted contracts to ‘indefinite conditions of service’ for teachers who would otherwise not have filled the required conditions.

Fraudsters purporting to be education officials are on the prowl, swindling teachers facing disciplinary action by promising to help deal with their cases. The fraudsters are working in cahoots with some unscrupulous Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education officials, demanding payments of between US$150 and US$500 to help the teachers in their impending disciplinary cases. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president, confirmed the unscrupulous behaviour by some ministry officials.

Lecturers in universities and colleges as well as teachers in public and private schools who are found guilty of abusing students risk having their degrees and diplomas cancelled by the Government to curb rampant abuse, especially of female learners. The Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development said there was an urgent need to curb the surge in sexual abuse of learners in schools, colleges and universities. Punishments such as imprisonment or expulsion from work was not enough since perpetrators always ended up teaching elsewhere using their diplomas or degrees.

Two Kwekwe High School teachers have been suspended after they allegedly asked parents for money to secure Form One places for their children. The matter only became public on the school's opening day, when the school authorities discovered that there was an extra class of 30 students, prompting the headmaster to launch an investigation.