The fight against corruption is a touchy issue in East Africa. The notion of stemming corruption is fashioned around the tradition of facing up with the truth of its possibility and proceeding there on to crushing it, Corruption in education is a major hindrance to achieving the second Millennium Development Goals of comprehensive primary school education for all the world's children by 2015. Corruption in the nations’ educational sector has weakened the sector, leading to low efficiency, wastage and misappropriation of resources, low quality service delivery. Effects of corruption on the education sector were extensive and damaging because it endangers a country's social, economic and political future.

Corruption in education affects more people than corruption in any other sector, both in rural and urban areas basically because schools are the breeding grounds for future generations. Corruption threatens equal access, quantity and quality of education.

Its consequences are particularly harsh for the poor who, without access to education or with no alternative but low-quality education have limited or no hope of escaping life of poverty, especially in a certificate crazy society like ours. Corrupt admission arrangements means that the best students may not get admitted after all. Corrupt promotion policies mean that the best minds are not rewarded, and that many will not even wish to be part of the academic community as a result. Funds are misused and the result is that libraries and laboratories remain ill equipped."

To curb corruption in the academia, we need, among other things, a systematic overhauling of the educational system by strengthening regulatory systems and management, Strenthening of civic education from primary to the general studies in the tertiary institution, integration of values in curriculum, introduction of Role Modeling, Improved funding and incentives for the education sector and adequate provision of basic infrastructure.

Though there is an increase by the four East Africa community countries in the percentage allocated to education in the past few years by the central government as commendable even though it still falls short of the quantum required by the provisions of UNESCOP. The spectrum of corruption in the academia should be examined in fourfold, the act of corruption as emanating from the academic administrators, the one emanating and supported by the academics themselves (lecturers and teachers), the roles students play in the contribution of the larger society. "The synergy of these four constitutes the formidable phenomenon called corruption in the academia."

• Corruption afflicts the allocation of resources to the education budget, leaving the sector under-resourced.
• Decision-makers prefer hard investments (procurement, military hardware, large construction projects) instead of soft investments (e.g. the daily running costs of schools), because the former are more easily corrupted.
• Decision-making can be biased along ethnic lines and can go as far as political blackmail (“if you don’t vote for me, you won’t get the school”).

• Grand corruption involves the diversion of funds from procurement, construction, and the lower levels of the system.
• Funds for educational institutions can be siphoned off at the administrative and political level by corrupt administrators, public officials and politicians even before they reach the schools.

• Money and supplies are diverted before reaching the schools.
• Educators in the lower system may secure opportunities or avoid punishment through petty bribes.
• Corruption in teacher recruitment and promotion lowers the quality of public teaching.
• Parents may pay bribes to ensure their children’s school access, good grades and graduation.
• Ethnic or gender bias may occur to the disadvantage of certain pupils (e.g. the bypassing of objective student assessment criteria). This also constitutes an abuse of power, i.e. an act of corruption.

The manifestations of corrupt practices repeat themselves across countries and regions. Lists of possible forms can help detect anomalies and to carry out in-depth analysis by using tracking surveys, audits, etc.

Decisions on government funding for new and existing schools are often taken outside the appropriate organs. Outcomes include unnecessary building of schools as projects are selected for purely personal and political reasons, disregarding real needs.

Corruption in procurement affects the acquisition of educational material (curriculum development, textbooks, library stock, uniforms, etc), meals, buildings, and equipment. As sales levels are guaranteed in such acquisitions, bidders eagerly pay bribes to secure the infallibly high profits. Where textbooks and supplies are monopolized by the state and bidding procedures are irregular, poor quality products become the norm and contracts are frequently secured by unprofessional agents.

Entrance exam papers can be sold in advance to high-paying candidates. Oral examinations are even more open to corruption as evaluations are subjective and difficult to monitor. Corrupt practices often become the routine as candidates even know how much a "pass" costs, and are expected to pay cash up front. Favoritism and nepotism is also common.

Supposedly free primary education becomes prohibitively expensive for poor families when the reality requires paying for private tutors in order to pass. Thus, private tutoring can exacerbate social inequalities, particularly when ordinary teachers provide paid supplementary tutoring after school hours for their regular pupils. In the worst of cases educators teach only parts of the curriculum during school hours, and force pupils to pay for the rest during private lessons.

As criteria for recruitment are repeatedly bypassed, unqualified personnel are often appointed. Placements in rural schools tend to be unpopular, especially among unmarried and female teachers, and can sometimes be avoided by bribing public officials. Skewed distributions of teacher postings can leave some schools overstaffed and others in crisis. Salaries paid to “ghost teachers” are a problem which worsens with a proliferation of rules and regulations: For promotion purposes candidates may bribe or otherwise influence promotion committees. Despite the rigid academic hierarchy in universities, senior academics often promote unqualified friends or colleagues to new positions.

Motivated and efficient teachers are crucial for quality in teaching. However, people in developing countries often complain of absent or abusive teachers and their demands for illegal fees. The proceeds from such fees, as well as other favors received as payment, are frequently for the private gain of educators. It is not uncommon to find pupils exploited as unpaid labour, drunk teachers in schools, sexual and physical abuse, or simply classes where no teaching is conducted at all.

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