New Delhi: India’s apex child rights body has summoned BYJU’S founder Byju Raveendran for a hearing Friday over allegations of malpractice levelled against the edtech giant.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) took suo motu cognisance of the matter after coming across news reports and issued summons to Raveendran on 16 December.
The company, in a tweet posted Wednesday, denied having indulged in any malpractice. ThePrint also reached BYJU’S co-founder Kavitha Shenoy via email. The copy will be updated when a response is received.
Official statement from BYJU'S pic.twitter.com/iOPqW5FoM7
— BYJU'S (@BYJUS) December 21, 2022
The summons issued by NCPCR read “… the Commission has come across a news article wherein it has been pointed out that the sales team of BYJU’S is indulging in malpractices to lure parents to buy their courses for their children. It has also been mentioned in the report that some customers have claimed that they were exploited and deceived, and had put their savings and future in jeopardy.”
NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo told ThePrint that this was not the first time he had received complaints regarding the edtech firm.
Last year, the education ministry had issued guidelines asking parents to be cautious about fraud by edtech platforms. “This guideline/advisory was issued only after the NCPCR received complaints from parents and we spoke with the ministry of education,” he said.
Kanoongo further said that the child rights body had last year “received grievances from parents from the lower income group that BYJU’S had forced them to take loans for tuition”.
“Once they are unable to pay for it, their CIBIL scores (a three-digit numeric summary of an individual’s credit history) are affected because of which they are unable to take loans when they really need it,” he added.
The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) — India’s statutory corporate fraud investigating agency — has also taken note and looked into the matter and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been informed, Kanoongo further said.
He added that he had expected the matter to end there, but with recent news reports of parents citing similar problems again, the commission decided to take suo motu cognisance.
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‘False promises to a poor man’
The NCPCR has asked Raveendran to appear before a panel of its members Friday and furnish details of all BYJU’S courses, the structure of these courses and fee details, the number of students currently enrolled in each course, the refund policy and relevant legal documents.
A former employee, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint, “We are placed under strict instructions to ‘close a query’ any way possible. Our target audience is usually the middle-class professional who can afford to pay for our services. If the economic condition of the parents is not good, then we are supposed to introduce them to our EMI options.”
Another employee claimed that he quit a few months after selling a subscription to a petrol pump worker who did not have the kind of income to be able to afford the course he had selected.
“It did not sit well with me to make false promises to a poor man. I knew he would default in a few months, but our sales pitches often include targeting students and asking them really tough questions. It is a way to show parents that their child really needs BYJU‘s to get a good education,” he added.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
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