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Ghana. Kazakhstan. Poland: In many countries, teachers must bribe their way into teacher-training college. Some then collect their salaries and do not actually teach; when they do, they demand bribes for students to pass exams. "Textbook racket" is also a common practice.

Ten weeks in charge of Belgrade's most unruly high school killed its Director's passion for education. Few of the staff members were willing to cooperate with her efforts to stop a system of bribery for good grades. When the police caught one math teacher accepting a marked 50-euros note from a student and the problem came out into the open, the teachers rebelled against her with a vote of no confidence in her authority.

When the General Teaching Council for England was set up it faced an uphill struggle to keep teachers and unions on side. Three years on, John Crace asks: has it made a difference and is it adequately carrying out its function as an investigator of misconduct?

The government has introduced a "Unified State Examination' test in the fight against corruption. The test will weed out weak teacher, improve the quality of instruction in schools and would ease the financial burden on parents of college students.

The rector of the Moscow State University of Culture and the Arts is alleged to have handed out 130 "false" law degrees between 2001 and 2004 in exchange for bribes worth RUR300,000. Estimates of how much students pay teachers and academics in bribes every year range from RUR250m to RUR300m.