CHED: Ghostwriting? Think again! You may be doing something illegal

THE Commission on Higher Education warned the public to not patronize social media pages offering ghostwriting services for academic requirements.

In a notice signed by CHED Chairperson J. Prospero De Vera III on January 10 and posted on Thursday, the commission said contacting and doing business with Facebook pages or other social media sites offering paid writing services for essays, case studies, and theses is illegal.

“The Commission on Higher Education cautions the public against Facebook pages and other social media sites purporting to offer ghostwriting services for essays, case studies, and theses for a fee,” said CHED.

“These pages are not in any way affiliated or approved by the Commission,” it said.

CHED said these practices violate the Intellectual Property Code, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and other laws.

The also reminded students who patronize these ghostwriting services may be subject to penalties, such as academic dismissal or expulsion.

Expulsion is too much

Although most students are aware that availing ghostwriting services is a “mortal sin” in the academe, college students like “Jeybi”, not his real name, would inevitably resort to such activities due to the piles of academic workload he had to juggle in his program.

He said that while it is only appropriate for students to accept the consequences of their actions, he thinks that expulsion is an unreasonable penalty. 

“The higher ups should understand first what’s the root cause of this problem,” he added.

For instance, Jeybi recalled a circumstance when he had to ask for a ghostwriter’s help in accomplishing one of his minor requirements in a class.

He said he had to do it because he had a lot on his plate.

“Lunod na lunod na ako sa requirements at that time and ang daming kailangan ipasa kaya pinagawa ko na lang yun para mabawasan workload ko,” said Jeybi.

He added that if only universities would lessen the loads of the requirements asked from the students, then maybe they wouldn’t have to turn to ghostwriters to pay for their services.

Academic dishonesty

According to “Diwa” (not their real name), 20, who has been offering academic ghostwriting services since 2021, it is only right for the commission to step into the issue as many students have been depending on ghostwriters like her to pass their courses.

They said that although it would affect her livelihood, patronizing academic ghostwriting services is an act of academic dishonesty.

“Having someone write your academic papers and then claim them to be yours is considered academic dishonesty, regardless if you paid for it,” they said.

The only reason that she accepts ghostwriting jobs, aside from the extra income, is because she empathizes with students who struggle to fulfill their academic responsibilities.

“Mayroon kasing mga di makaabot sa deadline because they are working part-time to support their studies. Mayroon din namang maraming gawaing bahay kaya di masingit na gawin yung papers nila. Others find it really difficult to write despite being in college na that’s why they opt to pay for someone na lang to do their papers,” they added.

Jeybi noticed the same thing. He mentioned that many students do not have a supportive household where they could spend all of their time studying alone. There are others who still have to do household chores, work part-time, and complete errands before focusing on their schoolworks.

“Yung iba kailangan pa magtrabaho or mag-asikaso ng ibang erands sa bahay before makagawa ng requirements. So having these kinds of ghostwriters na they can tap into tuwing nao-overwhelm sila is actually helpful,” he said.

Properly address the problem

Considering these reasons, Diwa said it would be best for the agency to address why these students would rather pay for others to write for them. 

“We should also look into why these students still struggle to write simple essays, kahit college na sila. Maybe there’s something lacking sa curriculum kaya nakakapag-produce pa rin ng mga students na di masyadong skilled sa ganitong aspect,” they said.

“Justin”, 19, who wished to remain anonymous, shared the same sentiments with Diwa.

He said he doesn’t feel confident of his writing, which is the main reason why he pays someone else to write his papers despite being aware that he is committing academic dishonesty.

“I hate to admit it but I never really learned how to properly write a paper back in high school because when we write poorly, our teachers would humiliate us instead of teaching us techniques to improve our writing,” Justin said.

“They would often say, ‘Ang laki mo na, di ka pa rin marunong magsulat ng essay,’” he added.

Moreover, Jeybi added that universities and authorities should concentrate on the root causes of the issue in order to come up with humane solutions.

He mentioned that the country’s educational system is too focused on the students’ compliance to their requirements, without actually paying attention if they are actually learning from these school activities.

“Minsan masyadong focused sa compliance ng requirements, not on the actual learning ng students,” he said. “Kaya naniniwala rin talaga ako na yung grades di talaga nya nasusukat talino ng studyante, ang nasusukat lang noon is kung gaano ka ka-committed magpasa ng requirements sa school.”

Jeybi said that the problem with students availing ghostwriting services for the academic papers all boils down to the poor quality of education in the country, as well as the rotten system that prioritizes the quantity of outputs the students produce rather than their takeaways from their academic experiences.