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The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education last week slammed the parents for paying Form One entrance examination fees saying they did that at their own peril as the Government has set an enrolment date for all the schools in the country. He said the entrance exams were banned long back by his ministry and have remained illegal and should not be left to continue. Enrolment of Form One students for next year started yesterday with parents expected to use their children's Grade Seven results.

The Malaysian government announced the allocation of seats at public universities last week, and it sparked uproar among ethnic Chinese and Indians. Only 19% of places were awarded to Chinese and 4% to Indian students – and even some with the highest exam scores failed to gain a place on their preferred course. The ethnic breakdown of the Malaysian population is 23% Chinese and 7% Indian, while 60% are Malay according to the most recent census. The results prompted the treasurer general of the Malaysian Indian Congress,– to say it was "the most unfair and biased public university intake in the history of Malaysia".

A scandal involving 49 students who sought places in an Egypt's prestigious university has been revealed. Instead of enrolling in the promised university, the students ended up in Malaysia where 15 were discovered doing odd jobs to support themselves. Moreover in what may be a bureaucratic cross-proposes the Indonesia's Ministry of national education is not in charge of verifying the student's process because is the Ministry of religious affaires the one responsible for students who apply to Islamic Universities abroad.

Despite a recent report from the government indicated that bribes paid in state universities total as much as 20 million lari ($10.9 million) per year, the plans to introduce national tests for university admission to make a more "fair" system with equal access and less corruption might be put on the shelves due to budget problems. According to Tbilisi State University only 20 % of the university's students managed to pass the school's entrance exams without paying bribes.

Fees for manipulating entrance test scores are between $80 to $20 000 for the most popular programs, such as computer science, medicine or engineering. Many feel the only way to clean up the system is to expand educational opportunities.

The Russian Federation will begin testing a system of state examinations this year, similar in format to the SAT in the United States and aimed at reducing corruption and creating equitable access to higher education. A single test is planned to be instituted nationwide in 2004.