*Students in Britain, Australia and the United States are said to be so lazy that they’re outsourcing their homework to academics in Kenya.
According to The New York Times, Kenyan college graduates are being paid as little as a $1 an hour to write essays, even if the student purchased the paper for $50. Apparently, the essay-writing business is a more than $100 million industry.
Via Blavity:
The students acquire the papers by going to auction websites and bidding on available writers. Once they’re linked with a writer they give specific details about the assignment. The writer completes the work and sends it back to the student.
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For years, “contract cheating” websites have sold custom-written essays to American college students for $30 a page. Now, in an odd twist on outsourcing, writers in Kenya sell essays for as little as $4 a page. https://t.co/mtQi183eMs
— NYT National News (@NYTNational) September 7, 2019
James Waitutu Karuri says he employs about 80 people to write essays and recalled the “great sense of achievement” he felt after earning his first million.
“Like most people, I started my essay writing business while I was at the university,” he said. “Over time I began to employ other people to do the work and my business snowballed from there. I remember clearly when I made my first million, I felt a great sense of achievement, like all my hard work was paying off.”
Roynorris Ndiritu studied civil engineering at college but couldn’t find work after graduation. Now he’s writing essays and bringing in about $2,000 a month — Kenya’s per capita income is $1,700, the report states.
University officials and lawmakers find it challenging to put an end to the essay-writing industry since the arrangements are generally secretive and made via various online channels.
“It’s a huge problem,” said Tricia Bertram Gallant, academic integrity office director at the University of California, San Diego. “If we don’t do anything about it, we will turn every accredited university into a diploma mill.”
One way to combat this issue is by using software to detect plagiarism, such as Turnitin.
“Because American institutions haven’t been whacked over the head like Australian schools were, it’s easier to pretend that it’s not happening,” Turnitin Vice President of Product Management Bill Loller said.
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