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Thousands of university students in Uzbekistan are being mobilized to help with the annual cotton harvest and some say they are working under abusive conditions, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. The harvest lasts from the beginning of the academic year in September until late autumn and only students at prestigious universities in Tashkent are exempt from taking part. The use of student and child labor to pick cotton violates state and international labor laws.

Makerere University has established a new policy that provides for the sacking of lecturers over drunkenness, writes Francis Kagolo for The New Vision. The policy, which seeks to boost academic standards, also requires lecturers to teach for a minimum of 10 hours a week and provide evidence that they carry out research.

The Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) recently pointed out that teacher absenteeism was one of the reasons for high failure rates in the Primary Leaving Examinations. However further researches have confirmed that the least paid teacher are not the ones who absent themselves the most. In fact are the high paid teachers the ones that spend the school time in the market places.

Against the backdrop of the ministry's policy to make education free of charge, the 2009 school year has begun, beset by shortages of supplies, lunches, furniture, and some teachers in public schools and institutions. Not only did pupils entering the schools have to take or buy their lunch but they also got an extended playtime, as the schools lacked the desks and teaching materials for the few teachers who were in place to give classes.

Companies that employ graduates to write essays and complete assignments for undergraduates claim they are not undermining academic standards because cheating occurs only if the students pass off the work as their own, something they discourage. In the other hand, reduced contact hours between undergraduates and lecturers make it harder for staff to detect work that is out of line with the student's abilities or writing style.

New teachers often face a many-month delay before they receive their salaries. Teachers sometimes supplement their income with a second job. This can affect their own attendance at school, and can put pressure on the amount of time they have to prepare their lessons. A 2007 report by the Cambodian NGO Education Partnership (NEP) reveals education costs for each child averaged $108 annually, or 9 percent of each family's annual income. "When you include informal and formal school costs, and private classes and snacks, many students are paying $2.50 every day," the education and capacity-building officer for the NGO Education Partnership (NEP), told IRIN. The inability to pay informal fees was the most common reason parents gave for their children dropping out, the report stated.

The average salary for a teacher in the US is $47,000 a year. One thing that money doesn't account for is the time a teacher spends putting their lesson plans together. On the webpage 'Teacherspayteachers.com' is an open market place, teachers can sell their original course materials for instant downloads.