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CCPA issues guidelines to curb misleading advertising in coaching field
The guidelines have been drafted after detailed consultation with all the stakeholders, including coaching institutes, law firms, government, and voluntary consumer organisations and an official CCPA statement has been issued in this regard on February 18
Unreal advertisements about coaching classes will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) which has issued new draft guidelines to curb misleading advertising in the field of coaching and invited suggestions and objections on the same till March 16.
The guidelines have been drafted after detailed consultation with all the stakeholders, including coaching institutes, law firms, government, and voluntary consumer organisations and an official CCPA statement has been issued in this regard on February 18.
The statement reads: “The guidelines are intended to protect consumers from misleading advertisements in the coaching sector. They will apply to anyone engaged in coaching. Misleading advertisements in the coaching sector will be regulated under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the proposed guidelines will bring clarity to stakeholders and protect the interests of consumers.”
The key points in the draft guidelines include: coaching institutes should refrain from making false claims about their success rate, selection numbers, or ranking of students in any competitive examination without verifiable evidence. Most importantly, these institutes should not pretend that coaching alone is responsible for the students’ success without acknowledging the individual efforts of the students. Furthermore, coaching institutes should not create false impressions among students and parents that coaching is essential and should not engage in anything that may mislead clients or destroy the clients’ autonomy. It is necessary that the coaching centres clearly state the extent to which coaching is involved in the students’ success.
“The guidelines issued by the CCPA are rightful and it is normally seen that most of the newly started coaching classes for competitive exams mislead students and when they do not give the desired results, the students and their parents sink into depression,” said professor Manish Choudhary, a senior teacher from a Pune-based coaching class.
Ankita Palankhi, a student, said, “In Class 12, I had joined a private coaching class for my board exams and they had given a guarantee that I would get above 95% but the teachers were not so good. Hence, our result plummeted and I got 82% marks in the state board exams. These classes are fooling the students with false advertisements.”
