Ministry Invites Public Suggestions on Draft Guidelines for Prevention of Coaching Sector's Misleading Advertisements

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, has sought public comments on Draft Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector. Draft Guidelines are placed on the website of the Department of Consumer Affairs and are accessible through the link here. 

This comes in a month after Ministry of Education had issued guidelines for Coaching Centres in the country. The Ministry mandated coaching centers NOT to enroll student below 16 years of age or the student enrolment should be only after secondary school examination.

Public comments/ suggestions and feedback are solicited and may be provided to the Central Authority within 30 days (until 16th March 2024).

CCPA conducted a stakeholder’s consultation on Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector on 08th January 2024, which was attended by Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Ministry of Education, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), National Law University (NLU) Delhi, FIITJEE, Khan Global Studies and Ikigai Law. In the meeting, there was a general consensus that Central Consumer Protection Authority should come with Guidelines for prevention of misleading advertisement in coaching sector.

The draft Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector have been framed after detailed deliberations with all stakeholders including coaching institutes, law firms, Government and Voluntary Consumer Organizations (VCO’s) and are now being put up for public consultation. Proposed Guidelines shall be issued under section 18 (2) (l) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019.

The draft guidelines define “Coaching” as tuition, instructions or academic support or learning programme or guidance provided by any person. Under the Guidelines, conditions for misleading advertisement have been laid out. Any person who engage in coaching shall be considered to be engage in a misleading advertisement if it employs any of the following practices –

• Conceal important information related to name of the course (whether free or paid) & duration of course opted by successful candidate or any other important information which can influence a consumer's decision to choose their services.
• Make false claims regarding success rates, number of selections, or rankings of students in any competitive exam without providing verifiable evidence.
• Falsely represent that students' success is solely attributable to the coaching, without acknowledging the individual efforts of the students. Clearly state the extent of the coaching involvement in their success.
• Create false sense of urgency or fear of missing out that may heighten anxieties amongst students, or parents.
• Any other practices that may mislead consumers or subvert consumer autonomy and choice.

Guidelines would be made applicable to every person engaged in coaching. The objective of the Guidelines is to protect consumers from misleading advertisements in coaching sector. Thus, the proposed Guidelines seek to prevent such misleading advertisements which effects consumers as a class. Misleading advertisement by coaching sector will be governed as per Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the proposed guidelines will bring clarity to the stakeholders and protect consumer interests.

For more information on the new guidelines, visit the link below :

(https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/sites/default/files/file-uploads/latestnews/Public%20Comments%20Letter%202.pdf) 

Top Image – twitter.com/@Abhay__Pandey

Education Ministry Issues Guidelines for Coaching Centres, Can't Enrol Student Below 16 Years

Ministry of Education, Government of India, has issued latest guidelines for Coaching Centres in the country for better guidance and assistance to the students in any study programme, competitive examinations, or academic support.

In the context of rising student suicides cases, fire incidents, lack of facilities as well as methodologies of teaching have been engaging the attention of the Government from time to time, the ministry said.

The number of unregulated private coaching centers in the country continues to grow in the absence of any laid down policy or regulation. Instances of such centers charging exorbitant fees from students, undue stress on students resulting in students committing suicides, loss of precious lives due to fire and other accidents, and many other malpractices being adopted by these centres are widely reported in the media. These issues have also been raised many times through debate, said the guidelines document issued by education ministry.

For Registration of coaching centers, the Ministry issued following conditions –

• Should NOT engage tutors having qualification less than graduation.
• Should NOT make misleading promises or guarantee of rank or good marks to parents/students for enrolling them in the coaching center.
• Should NOT enroll student below 16 years of age or the student enrolment should be only after secondary school examination.
• Should NOT publish or cause to be published or take part in the publication of any misleading advertisement relating to any claim, directly or indirectly, of quality of coaching or the facilities offered therein or the result procured by such coaching center or the student who attended such class.
• Should NOT be registered, if it has less than minimum space requirement per student.
• Should NOT hire the services of any tutor or person who has been convicted for any offence involving moral turpitude.
• Should NOT be registered unless it has counselling system as per the requirement of this guidelines.
• Coaching center shall have a website with updated details of the qualification of tutors, courses/curriculum, duration of completion, hostel facilities (if any), and the fees being charged.

Furthermore, the ministry has also suggested that coaching centres be penalised up to ₹1 lakh or their registration be cancelled for charging exorbitant fees that cause undue stress leading to student suicide or for other malpractices.

The state government will be responsible for monitoring the activities of the coaching centre and enquiring about any coaching centre regarding the fulfilment of required eligibility of registration and satisfactory activities of the coaching centre.

"Considering that regulation of +2 level education is the responsibility of State/Union Territory Governments, these institutions are best regulated by the State / UT governments,” the document stated.

To recall, National Testing Agency (NTA), an Indian government agency, had earlier launched a Mobile App called —‘National Test Abhyas’— to help the students to practice well for NEET (UG) and JEE (Main) entrance examinations. The app facilitate candidates’ access to high quality mock tests online free of cost.

The guidelines' document also mentions PIL in WP No. 456 of 2013 in the matter of Student Federation of India Vs UOI and others was filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court in which Ministry of Education was one of the respondents.

The PIL was disposed-off vide Order dated 03.02.2017 inter-alia with direction that issue raised in the petition, though important, is basically a policy matter. It will be open to the petitioners to raise the issue before the concerned authorities who may consider the same in accordance with law.

In the context of the issue of regulation of the private coaching having subject of elaborate discussion both in the Parliament and in the Ashok Mishra Committee Report, vide letter no. 32-6/2017-TS I dated 04.04.2017 Deptt. of Higher Education had requested States / UTs to take action for regulation and strict penalty system for deviant institutions. In this letter States / UTs were requested to take into consideration 12 measures suggested by Justice Roopanwal Commission of Enquiry to address the student suicide.