Nationwide protests allege that cash for the poorest parents is siphoned off. Jon Gorvett reports

The beating up of a 10-year-old school girl, allegedly by her headmaster, has exposed a country-wide scandal of embezzlement of World Bank funds for education.

Nilufer Polat, a pupil at Sarkimis primary school in eastern Turkey, was hospitalised after her headteacher, Munir Keskin, allegedly assaulted her when she publicly complained that grants earmarked for poor students had instead been handed to the children of Mr Keskin’s friends. He has been suspended and Nilufer’s family has applied to have him charged.

The girl’s case hit the headlines in Turkish newspapers and her allegation has unleashed a torrent of charges across the country that the grants have been embezzled or used for illegal purposes.

The grant of a one-off payment of 50 million Turkish lira (pound;20) was allocated for 1.05 million primary schoolchildren. It was part of the US$500m (pound;360m) Reducing Social Risk project initiated by the Turkish government and the World Bank to alleviate some of the worst effects of the country’s current economic crisis.

The money was to be distributed to the mothers of the least well-off, who had to apply formally. From the start there has been widespread criticism that the selection process caused embarrassment and was arbitrary and often corrupt. Nilufer Metis of Bahcelievler Hurriyet primary school in Istanbul, said in many schools the decision was left to the headmaster and his assistants who “acted as judge and jury”.

“In our school,” said Ms Metis, “the 50m lira was cut down to 30 or 40m by the headmaster. If the mother or father was someone who was articulate, then less was taken. If they were not able to cause any trouble, a larger amount was cut.”

Mehmet Yucelen from Istanbul’s Ticaaret Odasi primary said in her school some of the payments were cut, but no official receipt was given. “In other schools, they would give the parent 20m lira and write on the receipt 50m. The money went straight to the headmaster and his assistants and the parents had to sign for the money or get nothing.”

Sometimes the money appears to have been used illegally to bolster school funds, as many of Turkey’s state schools are so underfunded they have difficulty paying power bills. In other cases selection was arbitrary. In Istanbul’s Halil Bedii Yonetken primary it depended on whether or not the candidate had used the school service bus. “The logic was, if the kid’s parents could afford the pound;10 to use the bus, they didn’t need help,” said one teacher.

State minster Hasan Gemici, in charge of the scheme’s implementation, has refused to comment on the allegations, though two more headteachers in Bursa were suspended last week.The teachers’ union, Egitim Sen, said a “real way to help the poor” through the grants had been wasted. The union has promised to publicise further cases.