“Wasted Time” Advertisements.. “Online” Teachers Offer to Rescue Students with Projects Ready for “End of Semester”

As schools entered the week of submitting final projects and presentations for the second semester, accounts on Telegram became active, along with private lesson teachers, offering the service of preparing presentations and final projects to students in exchange for sums of money that varied according to the academic level, the number of slides, and the delivery date.

The accounts promote the implementation of projects through presentation preparation programs, such as “Canva” and “PowerPoint,” with a presentation design that takes into account the elements that the student or group of students is required to explain to the teacher, in addition to preparing, drafting, and coordinating the scientific content, and providing a copy ready for printing and another prepared for oral presentation.

Emirates Today monitored circulating advertisements bearing phrases such as “delivery in less than 24 hours,” “full grade guaranteed,” and “ready presentation with delivery text,” where the price starts from 150 dirhams and reaches 500 dirhams, depending on the educational stage and level of the project, while the cost increases or discounts are given according to the number of children for whom projects are requested to be prepared at the same time.

The newspaper contacted a number of service providers on Telegram, and they expressed their willingness, requesting that they photograph the project memorandum, specifying the number of slides required.

She declared that “the student is not obligated to make any effort other than memorizing the text of the speech,” while another woman stipulated that half the amount be transferred in advance to ensure the start of work.

On the other hand, educators warned that these practices empty school projects of their primary goal, which is to develop research, analysis, and presentation skills, and build confidence in the student while presenting his project in front of his colleagues.

A government school director, who preferred to remain anonymous, pointed out that the increase in these seasonal accounts during delivery periods requires raising awareness among parents and emphasizing that “supporting children does not mean doing the task on their behalf, but rather guiding and following them until they complete their projects on their own.”

She emphasized that “school projects are designed to be an integrated educational experience that develops in the student cumulative skills in research, gathering information, analyzing it, organizing ideas, formulating them, and presenting them with confidence,” noting that “converting them into a paid service reduces the educational process to a beautiful presentation that hides a knowledge gap that may appear clearly in the advanced academic stages, when the student is asked to rely on his own skills without external assistance.”

The administrator at a private school in the Emirate of Fujairah, Alaa Muhammad, stated that a number of the presentations presented showed a clear discrepancy between the level of design and content and the student’s actual abilities, especially among students in the fifth and sixth grades, noting that this discrepancy demonstrates the student’s failure to complete the project on his own.

She emphasized that teachers can distinguish between self-work and work carried out by an external party, especially when discussing with the student the details of his project and requesting clarification of some of its topics.

She explained that the goal of the final projects is not limited to obtaining a degree, but rather is to train students in time management, searching for sources, organizing ideas, and building an integrated presentation that reflects their academic personality, noting that seeking help from an external party deprives the student of these basic skills.

Computer teacher, Fawzia Ahmed, stated that design programs, such as “Canva” and “PowerPoint,” have become easy to use and suitable for the ages of students at various stages, explaining that dealing with them does not require complex skills, but rather their basics can be mastered during short training sessions, stressing that schools are keen to provide students with practical instructions and simplified lessons on how to prepare an integrated presentation using the free versions of these programs, starting with choosing the appropriate template, organizing slides, and using pictures and graphs, all the way to adjusting fonts. And the colors are appropriate to the nature of the project.

She explained that the goal of training students on these tools is not only to produce a professional design, but to enable them to transform their ideas into organized content that reflects their personal understanding of the subject, noting that resorting to payment for project completion in many cases reflects a weakness in follow-up or a desire to shorten the effort, at the expense of acquiring a skill that the student will need in the future at higher levels of education.

She added that some students, whose projects are completed by their parents or private teachers, face obvious difficulty when standing in front of the class to explain the content of the project, as they stumble in explaining the research steps or answering the teacher’s questions about details contained in the presentation, which has a negative impact on their oral evaluation, pointing out that a large part of the grade is calculated based on the true understanding of the content and the ability to analyze and discuss, and not on the aesthetic form of the presentation only, which makes relying on a “ready-made presentation” an academic risk that may affect the level of the project. The actual student.

• One teacher confirmed that the student is not obligated to make any effort other than memorizing the text of the recitation, and another woman stipulated that half the amount be transferred to begin work.

• Transforming projects and presentations into a paid service reduces the educational process to a “beautiful presentation” that hides a knowledge gap.