83 percent of nearly 490 parents and students surveyed by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) believe that the claims and promises made by Ed-Tech ads led them to feel their child could miss out on big achievements if they did not enroll for their courses. The report ‘Raising the Bar on EdTech Advertising’ highlighted concerns of misleading EdTech ads and unsubstantiated claims made by EdTech companies, among other problems, through their advertising methods. An analysis of 100 ads by the ASCI shows that more than 25 percent of ads make promises of making the student a topper, or of guaranteeing success. At least 31 ads make superlative claims of having the best teaching resources and faculty. The report shows that advertising remains the single largest driving factor in convincing parents to enroll their child into an EdTech course, with nearly nine out of ten parents relying on ads for making a choice of course. While more parents seem to trust these ads, they believe a greater inclination towards marks-based learning is problematic. Why it matters? Ed-Tech companies have been in the news for their advertising practices for a long time now. Experts, including lawmakers, have called out Byju’s for its aggressive selling tactics and for exploiting aspirations of parents to buy their expensive courses, thereby, pushing them in a cycle of debt . The India EdTech Consortium and ASCI were even deliberating on a code for advertising and marketing in 2022. At a time when calls for regulating…
