When parents resort to hiring 'professional help' for kid's homework

Mumbai-based bank employee Ajay Sharma prides himself on never having paid a bribe. The summer of 2009 is the only speck in his otherwise unblemished record. A few days before his family took off on vacation that year, his daughter Nisha* came home from school, looking miserable. “She was given holiday homework,” recalls Sharma.

“I saw the assignment list and was stunned. Every teacher had given her tons of homework. My wife and I decided to split it between us so Nisha could enjoy her holiday.”

But with two weeks left for school to reopen, the Sharmas were nowhere close to finishing Nisha’s homework. Sick of watching his daughter worry, Sharma says he was “left with one choice”— hiring professional help.

The professional help comes equipped with a multitude of college degrees: M.Sc., B.Ed., M.Ed., etc. Private tutor Naresh Mayank*, who helps students with their holiday homework and projects, says he has “well-educated people across the country” working for him. Mayank advertised his private tutorial on Justdial (a treasure trove for parents looking for holiday homework helpers), along with his number. Posing as a parent, this correspondent asked him whether he helps students by doing their homework for them. “Yes,” said Mayank, “Madam, once I commit to a project, you can consider it done.”

Though wary of divulging too much on the phone, Mayank explains that most of his staff are retired teachers. “Some are still employed in schools or colleges.”  With more and more students outsourcing their school homework and college assignments to professionals, the cost of homework is rising too. “Please send an email stating the child’s class and syllabus, and we can discuss the cost,” says Mayank. He replies to our email with the cost of the project (a solar system): Rs8,000. “We take Rs4,000 as advance and the rest after we complete half the job,” says his email.   

Sakshi Verma*, a Delhi-based MBA, says she charges up to Rs2,500 for tough assignments. Only three months old in the business, she has already finished 60 projects, which comprise not only the usual assignments and charts but also 3D models and power-point presentations.

At the college level, the cost of a project can run into many thousands of rupees.

Twenty-two-year-old Sasank Gopinath charges college students Rs12,000 per futuristic car design. When he was in college himself, a friend had given him the idea of taking up classmates’ and juniors’ project work to make a quick buck. That set Gopinath on the path to becoming a ‘helper’.

While it’s a win-win-win for parents, students and ‘helpers’, not everyone is happy though. Abha Dharam Pal, principal of Utpal Sanghvi School, is disgusted by the trend. “This is corruption. Parents are teaching their children to cheat at an early age. This is spoiling an entire generation,” she says.

When Gopinath looks in the mirror, however, he doesn’t see a cheat. “I have never felt guilty. My job is to finish the work and get paid for it. It’s not my responsibility to ask students why they want me to do their work,” he explains.

Indeed, plenty of school teachers and private tutors moonlight as holiday homework helpers. Many offer their services online. Key in ‘holiday homework helpers’ on Facebook, and the first search result that pops up is a page maintained by a company called Inzzzpiration, the “go-to place for busy, working parents who need help with their little ones’ school work”. They have appended a long list of the kind of projects they accept (which includes making puppets) and photographs of past projects. Where does the buck stop?

Understandably, the homework specialists are not comfortable discussing questions of ethics. “Why do you blame us,” asks a Mumbai-based homework helper, speaking on condition of anonymity. “First tell me why is there a need for people like us? Obviously it’s because children are overburdened with schoolwork. Teachers are in a rush to complete the syllabus. So they ask students to do half the coursework at home as ‘holiday homework’.”

But teachers maintain that they do all they can to ensure the student is not ‘overburdened’. Sudeshna Chatterjee, principal of Jamnabai Narsee School, explains there was a time when homework topics would be assigned to students in advance, and parents got these projects done by professionals. “Now, we give students a general idea of what the project will be about, so they can research the topic. The actual project is done in class.”

In 2010, the government made ‘Continuous and Comprehensive Education’ compulsory in schools. Since then, it has become the school’s responsibility to make sure students aren’t overburdened, she says.

Still, the practice of hiring help for kids’ homework is so rampant that some schools even have rules in place to ensure fairness. Pal of Utpal Sanghvi School says that in her school, a student gets negative marks if his project seems to have been completed by an adult. “For instance, in a village scene, the huts will look different, and the wiring will be clumsily taped if it’s been done by a child.”

She adds that setting holiday homework also involves strategic planning. “Teachers have to ensure that the child has time to finish it. If a family has plans for Diwali and I give the student an assignment two days before the holiday, then I don’t deserve to head an institution.”

And parents refuse to take responsibility too. “I wouldn’t have got my daughter’s homework done by someone else. But schools and teachers don’t leave us with much of a choice. I am an ethical man and I don’t want to teach my child to cheat,” says Ajay Sharma. After a pause, he adds, “I even attended rallies in support of Anna Hazare!”

*Some names have been changed to protect identity