Coaching centres must disclose details of candidates in advertisements, says CCPA

Coaching institutions would now have to mention candidate’s rank, course and its duration, whether paid or free, in their advertisements and are barred from making the claim of 100 per cent selection, job guaranteed or guaranteed qualifying in any examination

Hyderabad: In a crackdown on deceptive tactics of coaching institutions that prey on gullible students and parents’ aspirations with misleading advertisements, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has made disclosure of details of candidates in the advertisements mandatory.

Coaching institutions would now have to mention candidate’s rank, course and its duration, whether paid or free, in their advertisements and are barred from making the claim of 100 per cent selection, job guaranteed or guaranteed qualifying in any examination.

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These are some of the draft guidelines that have been formulated by the CCPA in its recently held first meeting of the committee constituted to prepare guidelines with respect to misleading advertisements by coaching institutions.

Refraining from false claims regarding their success rates or number of selections, the coaching institutions have been asked not to use smaller fonts for disclaimers in their advertisements but use the same font as that of advertisement and place them in prominent places.

These draft guidelines will be applicable to all coaching institutions, whether they are offering coaching online or offline, and cover all forms of advertisements regardless of form, format and medium.

The CCPA observed that some coaching institutes mislead consumers by deliberately concealing important information with respect to courses opted by successful candidates, duration of the course and the fee paid by candidates.

Of late, after the announcement of results of prestigious Civil Services Examination, JEE or NEET there have been instances of multiple coaching institutions claiming the same rank concealing students’ information from the consumers.

Taking suo moto action against such misleading advertisements, the CCPA has recently issued notices to 31 coaching institutions including some of prominent Civil Services coaching institutes and imposed a hefty fine on nine of them for misleading advertisement.

BIE panel in place to check misleading ads

The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TS BIE) last year constituted a committee to monitor the culture of advertisements and code to be followed by the private and corporate junior colleges.

The college managements wanting to advertise their college or students’ achievements have to take permission from the five-member committee before publication of such advertisements.

The committee was constituted as private and corporate junior colleges were giving out misleading advertisements with the same top ranks in entrance tests such as JEE and NEET UG to lure gullible parents and students into their respective colleges.