Search Page

According to an in-depth study entitled Effective Delivery of Public Services in the Education Sector, the progress achieved in Mozambique's education system in the last twenty years are is being threatened by diversion of funds, fraud concerning school admission and the awarding of building contracts, as well as by sexual extortion for good grades. The authors of the inquiry underline the urgent necessity to implement an anti-corruption legislation.

Two of the most prestigious high school institutions are been blame of sending home earlier the children in order to save substantial utilities and teacher's allowances, of detaining children at school in holydays and of asking parents to pay fees twice in the same term.

Government will create 12 new central universities, adding to the 18 that currently exist. However, if India invests large amounts of money and human capital into academic improvement and expansion, without undertaking strategies to ensure that corruption and the entrenched control of bureaucracy will not waste the investment, a failure will be assured.

In Uzbekistan, many schools lack basic supplies and teachers sometimes resort to asking pupils for cash to supplement meager budgets. The Uzbek Uchitel Uzbekistana newspaper in August 2007 reported that even the most experienced elementary and secondary-school teachers earn less than $100 a month. In 2007, Transparency International ranked Uzbekistan fifth from bottom in its corruption index of 180 nations surveyed.

At least seven students died and 39 were injured when their university building was caught on fire. The accident occurred because the university, short of money, had rented out the building's lower three floors as office space, blocking the fire exits. As the chief of fire control of the Russian Federation Ministry of Emergency Situation, declared, the university lacked fire alarms, so the emergency services were notified too late.

A report from Fundación Grupo Civico Etica y Transparencia (EyT) was elaborated to show the results of the "Corruption Prevention in the Education System project". After monitoring large construction contract processes related to the maintenance of schools in rural areas, EyT found that a significant part of the Ministry of Education's public contracting budget had irregularities. It advised the Ministry to strengthen the quality control of materials and conduct regular internal audits.

Ad hoc education fees have increased the last years. Many blame inadequate government input. However, even if ad hoc fees are levied, where does the cash end up? In Central China's Hunan Province, it is reported that an annually charged fee of 20 yuan (US$2.20) has been levied on every pupil for six years. The bureau also collected millions more from students for a sports facility fund but the sports centre was never built.