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The African Union report shows that at least 57 percent of people who make contact with schools in Malawi pay bribes. Informal payments threaten children’s rights and welfare. For example, informal charges by teachers for teaching, and for additional items such as school meals, books, uniforms or exams can drive poorer students in particular to miss school. In addition, the acquisition of fake or fraudulent qualifications affect the learning outcomes of children.

The quality of university education in Nigeria declines because politicians refuse to pay adequate attention to education. According to the president of the Academic Staff Union, most universities are “caricatures”, any person can teach and to be academic you only need some temperament. No serious academic work can be done and universities “produce ill-equipped graduates and they go to one political heavyweight, who gives them a letter and they are employed as teachers in the universities”.

The recent steps taken by the UK government to end the use of essay mills by its students is a blow to thousands of Kenyan students and university graduates who rely on academic contract writing as their main source of income. An integrity expert tells in his blog that the participants think of their jobs as providing a service of value, not as helping people to cheat. They see themselves as working as academic writers but this practice is considered unethical and there are concerns it will have damaging effects on the quality of higher education.

Large-scale fraud in India's medical entrance examination or the Pre-Medical Test – being described as India's biggest education scam – is having serious wider repercussions, calling into question the quality of medical education and the qualifications of some recently graduated doctors.