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Following two scandals at National Taiwan University involving two politicians, the president of the Union of Private School Educators called on the Ministry of Education to ensure that university dissertation plagiarism is prevented. Academics are unlikely to blow the whistle on misconduct by politicians studying for degrees. Instead of being compromised by favours from politicians, thesis advisers should instead be gatekeepers of academic ethics.

Borno State Governor has ordered a review of the primary school teachers’ verification exercise conducted in December 2020, which found 7,794 ghost teachers, after the Nigerian Union Teachers (NUT) complained that 624 teachers have been wrongly included in the ghost workers’ list. A Committee will review two reports submitted to the Governor on teachers’ verification and a Biometric Data Capture of local government Staff and Local Education Authorities.

The education department has released a list of ghost employees at different schools in the region, following which 79 employees will be suspended. These employees include 8 high school teachers, 8 junior schoolteachers, 10 primary school teachers, 4 Sindhi language teachers and 2 headmasters, as well as non-teaching staff. The Sindh Education Department said that all the employees belonging to schools in Karachi have been absent from school for 8 months but were receiving a salary.

A new report by the Education Service Commission (ESC) has revealed that since 2003, 1,000 ghost teachers have been on the government payroll. Over 600 ‘ghost teachers’ from various secondary schools and tertiary institutions accessed the payroll with fake appointment letters signed by officials, while 400 teachers lacked practising licences. The report says that in few schools, appointed teachers were not teaching but sub-contracted private teachers to perform their duties.

The Rwanda Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) has ordered the temporary closure of Rwanda Polytechnic Regional College Kigali, in order to investigate serious cases of theft and misappropriation of public resources. According to sources, college equipment allegedly disappeared, and top officials and several employees involved in the management of the institution have been interrogated and arrested.

The Chalinze Modern Islamic Pre and Primary School examination centre has been suspended by the Government for examination malpractice. Five students had their examination numbers altered with no clear explanation from the invigilators. The minister demanded that the owner of the school sack all teachers involved in the cheating scandal, or risk permanent deregistration of the establishment. The National Examination Council of Tanzania corrected the candidates’ examination numbers and the results affected by this malpractice.

The High Authority for Good Governance in Côte d'Ivoire has announced the completion of the design of the manuals and training programme entitled "Education in the Fight against Corruption", intended for students and future civil servants. The documents will be forwarded to the government for adoption. This project on the fight against corruption was launched in 2019 from preschool to higher education through primary, secondary, technical and vocational education, as well as vocational training schools.

To prevent the leakage of question papers and other malpractices, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has tightened the security of the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination. Ten cases of breaches of WAEC rules were identified, including people linked to rogue websites, while the suspects in three cases were convicted and fined by the court. According to the head of Public Affairs of WAECA, schools accused of malpractice will be monitored and confidential material and examination papers will be stored.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is the first South African tertiary institution to use blockchain technology as an additional security measure to protect its certificates against alteration or falsification. The Director of Central Academic Administration calls on all tertiary institutions to collectively improve the integrity of their qualifications and enable companies to verify their qualifications easily and at no cost, which will help to prevent certificate fraud and curb counterfeiting.