Government is framing edtech companies for misleadingly selling courses to parents

NEW DELHI: After the cen­ter took seri­ous notice of edtech firms, includ­ing BYJUs and its group com­pa­nies, mis­selling cours­es to par­ents, the self-reg­u­la­to­ry orga­ni­za­tion India Edtech Con­sor­tium (IEC) said on Sat­ur­day it is com­mit­ted to pro­tect­ing con­sumer inter­ests and decid­ed 100 per­cent com­plaints were received by June. 

The Depart­ment of Con­sumer Affairs has raised edtech com­pa­nies in a meet­ing with them and IEC, sources said, and aggres­sive mis-sell­ing of cours­es to par­ents was the main con­cern. (ALSO READ: PM Kisan’s 12th install­ment could be released on Sep­tem­ber 1st for ben­e­fi­cia­ries’ accounts, check the lat­est update here) 

The IEC, which is under the aus­pices of the Inter­net and Mobile Asso­ci­a­tion of India (IAMAI) and has cre­at­ed a two-tier griev­ance mech­a­nism, said it has resolved all griev­ances received by June 2022. Com­plaints received in July have been active­ly reviewed for faster res­o­lu­tion. (ALSO READ: HDFC Bank’s Q1 Net Prof­it up 21% to Rs 9,579 crore) 

“The edtech sec­tor is extreme­ly dynam­ic by nature, and as such what IEC is doing proac­tive­ly to meet the increas­ing chal­lenges will sure­ly fuel a stronger ecosys­tem in the times to come,” said retd SC judge and Chair of the Inde­pen­dent Griev­ance Redres­sal Board (IGRB). dr BS Chauhan. 

The IEC also said that each mem­ber com­pa­ny has inter­nal­ly appoint­ed its own com­plaints offi­cer to address and assess the issue and offer appro­pri­ate reme­di­al action. 

IEC mem­ber com­pa­nies are also reg­is­ter­ing with the Nation­al Con­sumer Helpline (NCH) to stream­line the res­o­lu­tion process, she added. 

“Edtech, as a strong com­mu­ni­ty, has been far more account­able and expe­di­tious in han­dling con­sumer com­plaints and com­plaints than our tra­di­tion­al coun­ter­part,” said Mayank Kumar, UpGrad co-founder and CEO and Chair­man at IEC. 

Accord­ing to recent reports, accord­ing to the Adver­tis­ing Stan­dards Coun­cil of India (ASCI), 33 per­cent of com­plaints are filed against the edu­ca­tion sector.

How­ev­er, ASCI’s offi­cial state­ment also states that accord­ing to IEC, 6 per­cent of the total com­plaints received are against the edtech com­pa­nies, while the remain­ing 94 per­cent are against the tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion system. 

Ear­li­er this month, the cen­ter warned edtech com­pa­nies about unfair trad­ing practices. 

In a meet­ing with the IEC, Con­sumer Affairs Min­is­ter Rohit Kumar Singh said that if self-reg­u­la­tion does not curb unfair trad­ing prac­tices, strict guide­lines to ensure trans­paren­cy would be formulated. 

The meet­ing was attend­ed by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of IAMAI along with IEC mem­ber com­pa­nies includ­ing upGrad, BYJU’S, Unacad­e­my, Vedan­tu, Great Learn­ing, White­Hat Jr and Sunstone.

The IEC includes edtech star­tups and rep­re­sents 95 per­cent of the Indi­an learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Dur­ing the meet­ing, issues relat­ed to unfair trad­ing prac­tices and mis­lead­ing adver­tis­ing for the Indi­an edtech sec­tor were highlighted.