Page 78 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 14
P. 78

Leadership
           Leadership

































                           WESTERN EDUCATION



                           The Cheat, The Liar and The Fool




               DEBUNKING THE FASLSEHOOD ABOUT A “HOLY” WEST

                                                   Chioma Phillips



                     ebora Patta, a foreign   the carefully curated narrative.  Cheating, which was inaugurated in
                     correspondent from                                         the year 2016. The term, contract
                     CBS News, filed a       Her video piece is on something    cheating, was coined in 2006 in a
          Dreport from Kenya                 called ‘contract cheating’, which   paper by Thomas Lancaster and
          towards the end of July 2021 that   according to turnitin.com is “the   Robert Clarke, though academicin-
          began: “Cheating in college is nothing   practice of students engaging a   tegrity.org clarifies that ghostwriting
          new, but as more and more degrees are   third-party to complete assignments.   for academic papers took place even
          done online, it’s become a billion-dollar   It occurs when someone other than   before 2006.
          industry and the heart of  it is right here   the student completes an assign-
          in Nairobi, often using top-class Kenyan   ment--and which the student then   ‘Essays for sale: the booming online
          graduates, who come from poverty like   submits for assessment/credit.” The   industry in writing academic work to
          this.” This last part she says with   third party can be another student, a   order’ is the title of a 2017 article in
          her hands outstretched, seeking to   parent, a teacher or tutor or some-  The Guardian, authored by Simon
          draw the viewer’s attention to the   one who is paid to do the assign-  Usborn. The article has this as a
          environment that surrounds her.    ment on behalf of the student.     sub-header: “Selling essays, assign-
          Her chosen backdrop? A narrow                                         ments and even PhDs is big busi-
          street in a strategically selected slum   According to news reports, and   ness – and legal, although everyone
          in Nairobi. The kind that foreign   other online sources, contract cheat-  knows many students will submit
          correspondents like to show viewers   ing is carried out by students in the   the work as their own”. He was
          in the west or east, to illustrate how   US and North America, Australia,   writing this from the UK in refer-
          backward, poor and dirty Afrika    China and the UK, to such an extent   ence to information he had obtained
          is, because the skyscrapers are an   that there is even an International   from UK Essays who referred to
          inconvenient truth that do not fit in   Day of Action Against Contract   their essays as ‘study aids’ that were



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