Many high school students faced with piles of homework found a solution as their summer vacations are coming to an end - they are hiring ghostwriters, especially university students.
"It costs about 30 yuan ($4.7) to finish a set of assignments for a senior high school student," said a junior at China Agricultural University, who only gave his name as You. "We have a team of three members covering different subjects. So we're able to finish all their homework, whether it's math or English."
He said they stayed at the university during the summer holiday.
"We want to make some money. And helping high school students finish their assignments is an easy way. One of my friends earned about 4,000 yuan last year doing this."
But he refused to say how much he's getting from his side job.
"They give us their homework in face-to-face meetings, telling us details, such as what percentage of the questions should be correct and showing us their handwriting. And then we can finish it for them," he said, adding that teachers pay little attention to the assignments, so it's not difficult for them to fake them.
You and his classmates are part of the increasingly larger group of people who make money by doing homework for others. At least 40 ads stating clearly that they can help students finish their homework can be found at the Beijing education page of 58.com, a popular website for information sharing and items exchange.
Group discounts
In many other cities, ghostwriters can be found easily on the Internet as well. And a large discount will be given to the students if they organize themselves in groups of at least 10.
"Even if only two students come to me, the price will be reduced by 5 yuan each," You said.
A whole class at a middle high school in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, sought help from ghostwriters to nail down 200 pieces of Chinese writing assignments at a discount price of 8 yuan per piece, according to a report in Wuhan Morning Post on Thursday.