Several years ago, my grand daughter was asked along with the rest of her class to do a science project on carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. She tackled the project with enthusiasm, researching the subject as meticulously as possible for a child of her age, hunting for suitable pictures and taking enormous trouble to produce the charts - all with no adult help at all.

All of us were delighted with what she had done and felt very proud of her. We were certain she would score top marks. But she returned from school in tears. The teacher had given her a zero for her project on the grounds that it was so good that her mother must definitely have done it for her!

I was incensed at the teacher’s behaviour. What kind of teacher, I fumed, would deflate and discourage an eight-year-old child in this manner? How dare she not believe that the child was telling the truth when she said she had done the project all on her own? After all, she had never been known to lie. Was this the reward for excellence? Did this lady, as ignorant as she was of the virtues of motivation, really deserve to be a teacher?

Resentful though I was then, I have to admit that teachers have ample cause to be suspicious. More often than not, it is parents who burn the midnight oil and not their children. I recently heard of a woman who gave up her job so that she could do her nephew’s projects for him! The purpose of getting a student to do a project is that the student must gain in-depth knowledge of the subject. He learns to research the subject, to cull the essentials, to lay out and present the information well. If mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles do the project instead, they deprive the student of the fun of learning. Yet this does not appear to deter them.

But what of those students whose parents do not have the time, energy or ability to help? Well, they need not despair. Indian enterprise, as usual, has come to the rescue. Where there is demand, there is supply. I have a flyer in front of me that offers, for a reasonable charge, assistance on any assigned topic to students from Class VII to XII. The ‘assistance’ includes an outline of the project, the latest information on the topic, photographs, uniqueness in the layout, and a creative presentation.

Project evaluation marks are usually taken into consideration in the public exam for the top classes. There is an easy way for students to get them now, at a cost. I wonder whether schools are aware of what is going on just outside their gates, which is where these pamphlets are conveniently being handed out? And if they are, will they do something about it?