An exam scandal has forced the provincial agriculture department to withhold bursaries. The irregularities have affected 38 schools and at least 2,000 exam papers.

The cost of running schools could go down by as much as 40% if corruption is eradicated. Moreover, if the head teacher's lifestyle is beyond what is expected of his station, blow the whistle. This is bound to raise cries of witch-hunting, but it is practised effectively in the Scandinavian countries, which are the least corrupt in the world.

The system is open to abuse because there is no counterchecking and quality assurance by the Education ministry of exam registration, marking and results. As a result, dishonest heads collected exam fees from students but failed to register them, said the Kenya National Association of Parents.

120 teachers have no qualifications, i.e. no documents or inadequate ones. Many primary teachers in remote areas lack qualifications and some do not even have O' level certificates.

Poor performance in the 2004 Primary leaving Examinations has been blamed on the many teachers who used fake academic documents and poor sanitation in numerous schools. Of the 5,655 pupils who sat for PLE last year, only 90 passed in grade one, while 3,892 failed.

Kogi State Primary Education Board (SPEB) has commenced the verification of primary school teachers' certificates in the state in the effort to sanitize and raise the standard of teaching in primary schools across the state.

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.

KABALE district has sacked 280 primary school teachers who were either on trial or untrained and recruited 240 to replace them. The 280 teachers had been appointed last year when the department had a shortage of teachers. The education sector is now carrying out a massive exercise to get rid of teachers with fake or forged papers.