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Academics, student unions and opposition parties have condemned the creation by Zimbabwean President of a new ministry – of National Scholarships – against the backdrop of the country’s ongoing economic woes. The appointment of a fully-fledged ministry will pave the way for budgetary allocations in the 2018 budget expected to be tabled in parliament before the end of the year. Critics have said that said the ministry of scholarships was not necessary and that the creation of a new ministry was an attempt by the president and his party ZANU-PF to create “new jobs for the boys”.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs last week interviewed three agencies that recruit and offer scholarships to local students to study abroad. The meeting came in the wake of revelations that a number of Zimbabwean locals have been falling prey to dubious agencies based in Harare who offer fake university scholarships to study in Cyprus with most students ending up stranded in the island country. Many of these students end up being forced into crime and prostitution in order to survive and pay for their tuition. The Zimbabwean Government is currently seeking the release and extradition of three Zimbabwean students who are held in prison in Cyprus for drug trafficking.

The Parliament has decided that schools cannot charge any money from students benefiting from the Universal Secondary Education scheme. The committee also wanted answers on examination malpractices, leakages and cancelled 'O' level results. It decided that when a candidate is deemed to have cheated in one paper, the candidate loses the whole examination.

The legal advisor to the Eduardo Mondlane University has denied that there was anything improper in giving scholarships to people who do not work at the university. In 2003 alone, over 147,000 US dollars, money that should have been used to send teachers to take further degrees abroad, in order to build up the institutional capacity of the university, were allegedly spent instead on the Vice-Chancellor's daughter, two children of the head of the universities public relations and 16 others.

The Minister for the Presidency has warned the Kimbugwe Foundation Scholarship Scheme against using the Movement's name to offer ghost scholarships to people. The foundation had selected 800 students and given them scholarships after charging them Shs10,000 each.

An exam scandal has forced the provincial agriculture department to withhold bursaries. The irregularities have affected 38 schools and at least 2,000 exam papers.

The auditor-general is investigating the financial office of the provincial government of the Eastern Cape, which gets $827,000 a year from the federal government for a scholarship fund that is supposed to benefit 650 to 700 students from the impoverished province. At least some of the scholarships have gone unpaid as far back as 1997.