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The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is in talks with HRD Ministry, CBSE, AICTE, Medical Council of India (MCI) and other educational bodies to introduce course content on corruption and ethics to make the students aware of the scourge and its consequences. If implemented, students in schools and colleges will soon be imparted lessons on the menace of corruption, its debilitating impact on socio-economic sphere and ways of tackling it.

Most schools in the country cannot account for books bought since introduction of free education in 2003, a confidential report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has revealed. The report has poked holes in the storage of textbooks in public schools noting that it is hard to establish the number of books purchased by most schools. It notes that despite the government releasing funds to schools to construct book storage facilities, most schools have not done so. According to the report, some schools bought one wooden cupboard which is maintained in the offices of head teachers or their deputies.

A new report has unearthed massive irregularities in the procurement of textbooks for public schools, with head teachers playing a key role in the racket. The fraud ranges from forged signatures, delivery of phantom books, overpricing and single-sourcing of suppliers by instructional materials selection committees at the school level. Education Cabinet Secretary recently said that though the government allocated Sh10 billion for books in the last three years, most schools did not have the materials. He estimated that the pupil-to-book ratio stood at 5:1 in primary schools.

The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Education has launched a code of conduct for public school teachers across the country. The director for communications at the Ministry of Education said the code of conduct is intended to enable teachers conduct themselves in the classroom as well as eliminate corporal punishment in schools.
The Ministry of Education has also informed the public that the police have been asked to arrest anyone caught selling textbooks and other school materials being distributed to schools.

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.

Following last month’s report by Transparency International, which ranked Rwanda as the fourth least corrupt country in Africa, The New Times spoke to the country’s Chief Ombudsman to make sense of current efforts against corruption. She says Rwanda can do more to fight corruption, starting by educating those who are still young by including values of integrity on the curriculum for primary schools. Teaching the right values to young people is key in fighting against corruption and it is in line with the country’s anti-graft policy.

Cairo University, Egypt’s biggest state-run academic institution, has initiated an action plan against thriving but unlawful ‘teaching centres’ in its vicinity, accusing them of “undermining the educational process”. The centres, located just outside campus, are accused of pirating academic books, producing sub-standard study guides and holding fee-charging crash courses for students. Academics, whose books have allegedly been pirated by the centres, say their complaints to law-enforcement authorities have not drawn a response.

Education Cabinet Secretary has described the auditing system used in Kenyan schools as a “big joke” and a great let-down and accused auditors of colluding with headteachers to give favourable reports even when money has been lost. He also decried the inappropriate use of free learning cash and the distribution of government-purchased books in schools and described the system of assessing the performance of teachers as still substandard.

A number of students in a law school were caught cheating in exams; one student was found writing answers already copied in a smart watch. The student either programmed answer sheets or recorded course materials into the device. One practicing lawyer in Abuja said such attitude may have long-term effects on those involved; it had undermined the integrity and independence of the graduands and could possibly increase the likelihood of the abuse of the attorney-client privilege as well as create weak industry-wide anti-corruption standards.