Draft Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching, 2024

Central Consumer authority have issued draft guidelines for regulation advertisement by coaching institutes in Feb 2024 for inputs from public. These guidelines will be in addition those provided in ASCI for education institutes or any other law in force.  Click here for copy of draft guidelines.

These guidelines will be applicable on all types of coaching facilities whether online or offline imparting tuition, training, learning or academic support.

Some of the key compliances are as under:

1. To disclose the course details of any successful candidate projected in advertisement by the coaching;
2. Put disclaimers more prominently;
3. Not to put any false/misleading/exaggerated claims;
4. Information/data/claims should be verifiable and correct;
5. Correct information about the infrastructure and facilities available for students;
6. Not boast about the success of the coaching regarding selections, jobs, ranks etc.;
7. Falsely representing that course is certified or approved by an agency or institution; and
8. Not to conceal any relevant information/facts.

Though most of the proposals in the guidelines are already covered some way in ASCI, however provision for disclosing course details of successful students in the advertisement is important.

Some of suggestions for improving the governance are as under:

1. Instead of distinct rules , these should be part of ASCI to ensure ASCI continues to be master guidelines for advertisement;
2. It is very common that students who obtain ranks are projected by multiple institutes. So in every such advertisement, they should either mention the name of all the institutes such candidate have studied or such students should be also be held accountable for misleading the students by becoming brand ambassador;

In case of contravention, the authority may either order to discontinue the advertisement or impose penalty upto Rs. 10 Lacs or in case continuing default penalty upto Rs. 50 Lacs.

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