{
  "id": 19743384,
  "title": "40% of students’ essays show signs of AI use – Report",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/40-of-students-essays-show-signs-of-ai-use-report-19743384",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-11-13T02:30:51.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Punch",
    "slug": "punch",
    "url": "https://punchng.com/40-of-students-essays-show-signs-of-ai-use-report/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The 2026 United Bank for Africa Foundation National Essay Competition revealed that around 35 to 40 per cent of the over 12,000 entries contained characteristics suggestive of AI-generated content. This finding was reported by the panel of judges, who included professors of English from four Nigerian universities. The judges noted that the essays exhibited overly polished American English, repetitive transitional phrases, generic solutions without local context, and disclaimers characteristic of AI-generated text. They also identified similarities among submissions, such as identical introductory paragraphs, definitions, and conclusions, which indicated the use of common prompts or templates. The judges emphasized that this widespread use of AI-generated essays and templated content undermined the competition's aim to promote originality and critical thinking, putting honest and original students at a disadvantage. As a result, they recommended mandatory AI-detection and plagiarism screening, clearer essay guidelines, teacher training, and measures to prevent identical entries in future competitions. The competition's winner, 15-year-old Bala Khaira, was announced as the recipient of a N15m education scholarship, with four other students among the top five winners sharing in a N40m scholarship pool.",
  "summary": "A report by judges of the UBA Foundation National Essay Competition reveals that an estimated 35-40% of entries showed signs of AI-generated content. Read More: https://punchng.com/40-of-students-essays-show-signs-of-ai-use-report/",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}