Be Careful Of Free Services: Government warns parents, students about ed-tech companies
Government has issued an advisory to alert parents, students about online education, coaching, and free services offered by ed-tech companies.
Vagisha Kaushik | December 23, 2021 | 06:05 PM IST
NEW DELHI: The government has issued an advisory warning parents, students, and other stakeholders to be careful while opting for online education offered by ed-tech companies . It has asked the citizens to carefully evaluate especially the free services offered by these companies.
“Given the pervasive impact of technology in education, many ed-tech companies have started offering courses, tutorials, coaching for competitive exams, etc. in an online mode. In this background, the parents, students and all stakeholders in school education have to be careful while deciding on opting for online content and coaching being offered by a host of ed-tech companies,” it said in a statement.
Also Read | 'I would invalidate the very exercise of ranking institutions,' says scientist
The Department of School Education and Literacy (DOSEL) said it has noticed some ed-tech companies are tempting and trapping parents in the name of free services and getting the Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) mandate signed by them or activating the auto-debit feature, especially hitting on the vulnerable families.
The Do’s and Don’ts
The government has issued some do’s and don’ts which parents, students and others may follow.
The do’s include avoiding automatic debit option for payment of subscription fee; reading the terms and conditions before accepting any offer; asking for a tax invoice statement for purchase of educational devices; checking background of company; clarifying doubts regarding payment and content; guiding child on usage of features; checking reviews of the company; providing suggestions etc.
Also Read | Odisha: Free IIT-JEE, NEET, NDA coaching to Class 11 students; Test on Jan 15, says report
The government has also asked citizens to go through the child safety guidelines mentioned in the PRAGYATA guidelines by the Ministry of Education before using any ed-tech platform .
The don’ts include not blindly trusting advertisements; not signing up for unknown loans; not installing any unknown ed-tech app; not registering credit or debit cards on any app for subscription; not adding personal details like email ID, contact number, card details, address etc.; not clicking on pop-ups etc. from unknown sources among others.
Also Read | From free education to IAS, IIT coaching for SC, know 5 promises made by Delhi CM
The government has also shared legal provisions for e-commerce for the knowledge of citizens using the ed-tech services.
Government initiatives on online education
The ministry of education has provided free e-learning contents, textbooks, digital labs for all classes online ensuring quality and access for all for learning. They can be accessed at these websites:
- diksha.gov.in
- olabs.edu.in
- swayam.gov.in
- nios.ac.in
- SWAYAM PRABHA TV Channels for class 1 to 12- swayamprabha.gov.in/index.php/schooledu
- Official learning portals or apps of the states, Union Territories (UTs)
Follow us for the latest education news on colleges and universities, admission, courses, exams, research, education policies, study abroad and more..
To get in touch, write to us at news@careers360.com.
Next Story
]Featured News
]- Oxford to Harvard: How the world’s richest universities built billion-dollar academic empires
- ‘Being severely ragged’: Rajasthan MBBS student complains to UGC, NMC; Bhilwara medical college denies
- Bihar government cut absentees’ names from school rolls, violated teachers’ rights: PUCL
- Education News This Week: NEET reforms; PG counselling dates; JEE Main registration starts
- ‘Gross negligence’: NMC’s new MBBS curriculum guidelines can harm 3.6 crore Indians
- Library set up by IIT Delhi alumni helps students clear JEE Main, NEET, government job exams
- Time for the ‘wiki-thesis’: Rethinking research assessments in the age of AI writing
- Study Abroad: US, Germany more popular among foreign students; Canada, UK lose appeal, shows IDP survey
- Over 30,000 BTech seats in Karnataka vacant following surge in fee, intake
- Education News This Week: CBSE practical exam dates; IIT Delhi suicide; IIT Bombay’s facelift