Summary: JEDDAH: Large numbers of young customers lined up at art shops and bookstores suggest that not every assignment submitted to teachers is actually done by the students themselves.
By FATIMA SIDIYA | ARAB NEWS
Schools tend to ask for such projects as part of the curriculum and also to participate in regional competition between schools.
Abu Sa'ad who works as a calligrapher for an advertising agency specialized in "school materials" said that this is the peak time for doing projects.
"We don't charge much. They are students and we want to gain customers. A regular project costs SR70. The more the students ask for the more they pay. For big projects students tend to come in groups so they divide the cost among themselves," said Abu Sa'ad, who has been in the business for 20 years.
A bookstore in Jamea district advertises that it does "student research projects and PowerPoint presentations."
The research projects they do, according to one shopkeeper who preferred to remain anonymous, are as cheap as SR30 for school students and up to SR700 for college students.
Asked about the sources they use, he said: "We refer to the research we did previously and we make the necessary updates from the Internet, then we fit it in the layout that the students want. Some students sit with us, while others would just pick up the work later."
The students are being asked by their teachers to do projects either for extracurricular activities or for their regular classes, but students find a short way out by going to these shops to get their project done by somebody else.
Dania Sabir, a 16-year-old girl who had to write a poem in Arabic calligraphy, went to a shop and paid a Pakistani worker SR150 to do the job.
"Even if I did it on my own it wouldn't look nice and we couldn't post it on the school's wall," she said.
"We need something appropriate and my teacher knows about it. It is not only me, it is just what everyone around is doing."
High school student Ayah Shata said that she has her science projects done by others.
"Some projects are not that expensive," she said. "Not all teachers are lenient about it. Some object, but they don't reduce our marks."
Shata said for her research projects she uses the Internet.
"I just Google the subject I am researching, do a compilation, and that is it!"
Parents, however, have been complaining about the extra expenses they have to bear for their children to pass their projects with high grades.
"Almost every two weeks my daughter will approach me and ask to go to a bookstore to buy materials and then to another shop where they do the projects," said Um Faisal.
"Teachers want to look perfect in front of the principal and supervisors from the Ministry of Education."
Copyright: Arab News 2011 All rights reserved.
Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company
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