WOULD you pay someone to complete your child’s project for school?

Scores of Jamaicans do and, according to the owners of two businesses that offer the service — Tanya Clarke, managing director of Nifty Assignment Services, and Kidz Kreation boss Isha Williams — there is a huge demand for it.

In fact, when the Jamaica Observer spoke to the Montego Bay, St James-based crafter Clarke in October, she disclosed that she was fully booked until November 30. Williams is similarly busy, as she said she was fully booked for the week and has had to turn away clients.

The two entrepreneurs started out by completing homework assignments for their relatives before eventually deciding to make businesses out of their skills.

For 28-year-old Clarke, it is currently a side hustle, while Williams runs her small business with help from her younger sister.

“It is still a side hustle, but it’s growing and I do have plans for it to be the main thing,” Clarke told the Sunday Observer.

She explained that when she started Nifty Assignment Services in 2018 it was to earn additional funds. She did not, however, envision that it would be where it is today.

“We do school projects, so for basic school, high school, just about any level. We do not do research papers, we do not do SBAs [school-based assessments], but as it relates to models and charts, we do that for every level,” she explained.

Clarke said there is a “very high demand” for her services, explaining that every day multiple people call to see if she can squeeze them in to get their children’s projects done.

A one-woman business, her output is determined by the type of projects she gets to complete.

“If it’s mostly models, I can do up to six models per week, and that is while I am juggling my work — my primary [source of] income — as well as other duties,” Clarke said, adding that if she were only focused on Nifty Assignment, and if she had a team, based on the demand, the output would be more.

Williams, 29, said she always liked art and craft in high school and Kidz Kreation was born in 2022, when her spouse encouraged her that it could be a profitable venture.

“There is a strong demand for my business, especially in handmade craft… I try my best to get it done for them to exceed expectations,” she said.

Based in Kingston, Williams offers delivery services for her clients outside of the country’s capital. She explained that her level of output varies based on the type of assignment, but she delivers an average 12 projects per a week.

Sixty per cent of Nifty Assignment Services’ clients are outside of her home parish St James, so she, too, does deliveries via Knutsford Express and Zipmail.

They both said most of the projects they complete are for primary-level children.

Though Andrew McQuick has not set up a business, he also does projects for those who approach him and he believes there is a demand for the service.

He told the Sunday Observer that he, too, designs models for school assignments, something he started doing for his daughter. However, he is usually hesitant to charge a fee, because people don’t want to pay.

While McQuick sticks to people who approach him, both Nifty Assignment Services and Kidz Kreation utilise social media channels Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to reach more clients.

The Sunday Observer reached out to a few primary schools to ascertain whether they are aware of the practice of parents and guardians paying to have their children’s assignments completed.

According to vice-principal of Jessie Ripoll Primary School in Kingston Marsha Moodie-Benbow, the practice became an issue at their institution.

“It posed a problem, as we want to see our students doing hands-on work to see their involvement and working with their parents, and [with] the models, pretty much everyone came in with the same model which makes no sense, seeing that it is a graded assignment.

“So we put a stop to that, and we ask that the projects are done from scratch, where we can actually see the students’ actual work,” she told the Sunday Observer, adding that the decision was taken just over three years ago.

She added that teachers are often not looking for perfection, and that she believes parents sometimes overthink the projects and go “far and wide… so it seems more extensive than it usually is”.

Instead, she is encouraging parents to be creative and try.

One of the parents with whom this publication spoke admitted to not having a “creative side”, which is one of the reasons she has opted to pay to have her child’s projects done.

A repeat client of Nifty Assignment Services, Shantal Anderson insisted that it may sound like lazy work, but it is not.

“I have a very demanding job — operations manager at a call centre — so when I get my child’s project to be done, I don’t have the time to do it, because I still help her with homework and all that good stuff, plus I have a six-month-old right now, so paying to get it done is the easiest way for me; plus I don’t have any creative side of me, so I really can’t do it,” she said.

Anderson explained that what she does is to ask Nifty Assignment Services to make the project kid-friendly.

“If there is any notes or anything that should be written on it [I ask them] to not put in that part of the information, to just leave it blank and then I’ll have my daughter write in that part of the information,” she said.

This way, her child can participate in completing the project. She told the Sunday Observer that her child’s previous teacher did not have an issue with that approach.

Both Clarke and Williams have said they’ve never had an issue with the same models being completed for their clients who might attend the same school or be in the same class, as they take a unique approach to every project.

“I try to do all projects differently, because it is a school assignment, so you don’t want to send two of the same project,“ Nifty Assignment’s Clarke said.

Kidz Kreation’s Williams said, although previous clients have recommended her to other clients at the same school with the same project, she does each project differently.

While Anderson is one parent who opts to pay to get some of her child’s projects done, Janice Richards is one parent who would not. However, Richards does not think there is anything wrong if parents do not have the time to do the project themselves or are not artistically inclined, and therefore pay to have them done.

Richards said she would not pay to have it done because of the added expense, plus her area of expertise calls for creativity so she is able to help her children with their assignments. She added that she, however, opts to complete most of her children’s projects herself because the tools being used, such as a glue gun, can sometimes pose to a risk to the children if not handled properly.

To those parents who might be totally against others paying to have school projects done, Anderson said: “If you’re a stay-at-home mom and you have a lot of time on your hands, then fine… but if you’re a mom like me — a mother of two, you have a full-time demanding job — then it’s okay.

“It is not like you are cheating your way out — you are still doing the work, you are still getting it done, you’re ensuring that you are meeting the deadlines and your child is participating in doing the project, so, personally, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Anderson said.

Meanwhile Nifty Assignment’s Clarke, in an effort to test the market, reached out via social media to pose the question about whether people would pay to have their children’s project done. Clarke said some of the reasons the parents who were willing to pay gave were because they don’t have the time or they don’t have that level of creativity.

“A lot of the projects, depending on the education level, are done in a way that will include student and parent interaction. For example, if I do a model, I will provide cards so the child can do the labelling of the model, so the child is still learning and memorising the information.

“I also provide note cards so they can write; for example, a model of the digestive system, I ask the question, ‘What do you know about the stomach?’ and I leave the space so the child can write the information,” she explained, adding that there are other ways in which the child can be involved.

“I recently did a chart for a child, kindergarten level, I believe, and it was a nouns chart. I basically put the outline of objects of people on the chart and the colouring of those objects would be done by the child, the definition of nouns would be written by the child and different types of nouns would be written by the child, as well,” she said. “Those are just some ways in which the child and the parent can get involved in the process of completing the project.”

Kidz Kreation’s Williams said she understands where some parents might be coming from, because sometimes children can be lazy and they want their children to engage in the project.

“But I’m always there to help to make their learning easier and more engaging. I work closely with both parents and students to ensure my support adds to their learning experience, not to replace [it], she told the Sunday Observer.

But what is the price tag on a project? Both Clarke and Williams said the price varies based on the project and what is required, but shared that they generally start at about $2,500.

A model of the teeth done by Nifty Assignment Services.

One of the projects completed by Tanya Clarke, managing director for Nifty Assignment Services, for a client.

One of the projects completed by Nifty Assignment Services shows some sections left blank for the child to input the information.

Tanya Clarke, managing director of Nifty Assignment Services, a small business that completes projects for school assignments. She is based in Montego Bay, St James, but says 60 per cent of her clients are outside the parish.

The model of a computer done by Andrew McQuick.