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The scale of an alleged "ghost teacher" scam discovered at the Ministry of Education in late 2011 has ballooned, with the first court appearance of eight suspects following their arrest by the Anti-Corruption Commission. The Ministry was allegedly defrauded when the names of people not employed with it were registered on the Ministry's payroll.

During an interview, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) discussed the problems and undercurrents of the nation's education sector and the way forward. He strongly criticized the irregularities in the system and said that fighting corruption in its totality must be a priority.

Massive corruption has hit the education sector with district education officials reportedly demanding various amounts of money to interview temporary teachers to fill in vacant posts. The education officials are charging the desperate untrained teachers for application forms which are normally distributed for free.

The Kogi State Government claims to have uncovered 800 non-existing primary schools and at least 3,000 ghost teachers on its pay roll during a recent screening exercise. The Nigerian Accountant-general who informed journalists in Lokoja of this, said that such expenditures had been draining government coffers and that counteractive measures would be taken.

In a rural district of Uganda, almost half of all teachers were absent on a typical school day. The African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) trained a few student leaders in each school to take attendance of everyone, including teachers. As a result, teacher absenteeism has dropped to ten percent in this district.

The government has launched an education plan that will see corruption becoming a subject in primary and secondary schools as well as in teacher training college syllabuses in the country.

A report from the World Bank, "Africa Development Indicators 2010", has concluded that "quiet corruption" faced by common citizens is undermining the continent's development efforts and adversely affects inflows of investments.