Schoolgirl buys £90 copying robot to do her homework
Schoolgirl, 15, buys a £90 copying robot to write her homework… only to be caught because the assignment is done ‘too quickly’
- Ninth-grader in China bought the writing machine online with her pocket money
- Mother grew suspicious after she finished all her holiday assignment in two days
- The news attracted thousands of comments that show divided public opinion
- Some believe she should be punished while others called for education reform
A Chinese student who got away with using a 800 yuan (£90) copying robot to write her homework for her was only caught because her assignment had been done ‘too quickly’.
The ninth-grader in Harbin, Heilongjiang province surprised her mother after completing all her holiday assignments in two days – with perfect handwriting and zero mistakes, according to Chinese reports.
The mother grew suspicious and eventually discovered the machine – a metal frame attached to a pen – in her daughter’s room.
A student in China who got away with using a 800 yuan copying robot to write her homework for her was only caught because her assignment had been done ‘too quickly’ (file photo)
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The furious mother broke the copy device and scolded her daughter following the discovery, according to Qianjiang Evening News.
The girl admitted to using pocket money received during Chinese New Year to purchase the robot online, the report added.
‘I was wondering how you were able to finish your homework so quickly – now I know, you had a “writer”,’ the mother, surnamed Zhang, was quoted as saying.
‘It can help you write your homework, but can it help you write your exams?’ the mother asked.
It is a common practice for Chinese teachers to assign students homework on copying text, such as vocabulary, passages or poems.
A demonstration video released by Beijing News shows one of the robots churning out handwritten Chinese characters perfectly at high speed
Descriptions on the machines boast a variety of fonts for the user to choose from, while others would allow the user to create their own front by using an app to write 6,000 Chinese characters once each for the robot to learn them
A search on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao showed that a copying robot typically costs between 200 yuan (£23) to 1,200 yuan (£136).
The robot, fitted with a metal frame to hold paper, has an arm to hold a pen. After connecting the machine to the computer with a cable, the arm can produce text with the pen running on a software.
The robot can produce 40 Chinese characters per minute, according to a shop assistant.
Descriptions on the machines boast a variety of fonts for the user to choose from, while others would allow the user to create their own front by using an app to write 6,000 Chinese characters once each for the robot to learn them.
Users that own the machine told reporters that no one could tell the difference between the robot’s handwriting and their own work.
A writing robot signs a certificate in a demonstration video released by Beijing News
A search on e-commerce platform Taobao showed that a copying robot typically costs between 200 yuan (£23) to 1,200 yuan (£136). The device can write 50 characters per minute
A demonstration video released by Beijing News shows one of the robots churning out handwritten Chinese characters perfectly at high speed.
The news has sparked debate among Chinese social media net users, with many calling on schools to reflect on the necessity of such mundane homework assignments.
‘Such a great invention! I wish I had this when I was studying,’ said one user on microblogging site Weibo.
‘How is the student supposed to learn when a robot did everything for her? She doesn’t even know what she wrote in her homework,’ one user said.
‘Institutions should reflect on whether it is truly beneficial for students to complete such brainless copying assignments,’ one top comment read.
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