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The Ministry of Education (MoE) has commenced the teacher verification process to ensure the restructuring and rightsizing of the teaching workforce. The purpose of this initiative is to audit the teachers' payroll and correct all identified anomalies to ensure the elimination of persons with fraudulent qualifications from the system. Money saved by the MOE, if any, will be used to rationalize the pay and benefits of educators to attract and retain professionals in the field.

The ongoing Government audit of schools across the country has unearthed massive abuse of levies collected from parents and guardians purportedly to fund development of learning infrastructure. From the 1 800 (18 percent) schools audited so far, there are indications of massive doctoring of accounting records by the schools.

Afghanistan’s government says at least 8 million children are enrolled in school, but activists allege that up to 70 percent of the schools on official lists are alleged to be bogus, or only have a fraction of the students they claim.

Nationwide school audits were this year expected to cover over 80 percent of the 8 179 schools in the country, of which 5 805 are primary schools, while 2 374 are secondary schools. While the exercise has so far been producing results and unearthing massive irregularities and abuse of funds at Government school institutions, there are reports that schools are being asked to fund the exercise.

A series of incriminating reports in 2015 indicate that corruption has hit several parts of the education sector. A countrywide audit being conducted by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has established that authorities have prejudiced schools of millions in levy scams. School authorities accused of embezzlement have been arrested and subsequently convicted, with some of them jailed for at least five years.

KOLHAPUR: Like the grading system in higher education through the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the state government will soon introduce the State Assessment and Accreditation Council (SAAC) system for the assessment and accreditation of the primary and secondary schools across the state, a move welcomed by city-based education activists who say it will bring transparency to the education system and will force schools to improve their infrastructure and education quality

Many instances were witnessed across the country, where parents arrived at schools to return free uniform material vouchers which were invalid. There were also instances where parents complained of the insufficient value attached to these vouchers, and where parents were unable to purchase quality material for a specified price. Against this backdrop, several teachers and principals’ associations staged a joint media briefing in Colombo, highlighting the fact that teachers, students and parents, have been inconvenienced by the new voucher system.