From 2017, there is a gradual increase in number of online coaching (E-learning) companies. They not only target the students but also play along with insecurities of parents by misleading and fake advertisements to sell their courses for high prices which are available on internet for free or at very low price.
Bad Tactics of Selling and Marketing
Companies like Byju's, Osmo, Unacademy, etc. have earned high profit during Covid-19 pandemic as there was mass closure of education institutes and all the students had to, willingly or helplessly, start studying online. The profit earned by Byju's was so high that it acquired Whitehat Jr, Great Learning, and Aakash in the span of one year. Following are some of the unethical ways used by these companies:
Fake Posts and Misleading Ads
There are so many E-learning companies uses fake posts to promote their courses. A company named Whitehat Jr in one of its advertisements claimed that a 6 year old child made games. An average software engineer knows very well how pathetic this advertisement is but it can be misleading for a less educated person.
In August 2021, FIR was filed against Byju's founder for allegedly using fake information in its UPSC curriculum. The Whitehat and Byju's ads were highly criticized on Twitter and Instagram as They are highly misleading. According to them, their policy of marketing is shamelessly looting Indian parents.
The advertisements are more seemed to motivate children and parents for money and less for skill enhancement. The successive ads to learn coding and crack high earning packages in big companies might influence the mindsets of young students. There is nothing wrong in pursuing a dream of working in Google, Amazon, NASA, etc. but it is also not right to use insecurities of parents and let them compare their kids with other kids' IQ.
Poor Selling and Marketing
Salesman of such E-learning companies are given full liberty; they are free to say anything they want. The Salesman of Byju's trained for selling the courses to both upper as well as lower middle class parents. The course selling starts with questioning the kid and end with parents counselling that includes panic-mongering. They sometimes trap the parents with anxiety of child's future and competition in the study line.
Consequently, most of the parents end up paying the whole amount at once or in installments due to which many of them unknowingly finish themselves as paying loan for years. Over-exaggerated lies are no less than crime when it comes to education of a child and we as a society have to detect this epic loophole of these companies as soon as possible.
Fixated Loop for Children
One of their tactic is to make children remain fixated in their platforms they provide in their tablets. These companies do not want children to become aware of resources that are freely available on internet. By staying in their fixed bubble/loop, these users never get aware of reality and that's what these companies want in order to keep children away from the central skills.
Censorship to Criticism
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| Numerous cases of censoring various social media accounts, articles. etc. |
Another brutal tactic of these E-learning companies is censorship which means banning or suspending videos, accounts, articles, photos, etc. that try to tell the truth about these companies. Not only normal people but the parents who were saying that they did not like their products, their reviews are hidden. Whatever is being said is kept hidden so that they can fool more people and sell their products to them.
Major Threats
Success of one company will lead to rise of more number of such companies implementing same set of tactics and keep ruining the future of so many poor or lower middle class families. Byju's turnover was so high that many MNCs have invested in it; the impact of Covid-19 resulted boom in the online education sector which is a great thing only if it's done in ethical ways.
In an year or two, this way of education will become a norm if the bad practices would not stop. The parents are falling into EMI traps during the primary phase of study of their kids, college is still a long way to go. In addition, the poor and uneducated parents are falling in this trap more frequently than the others because of marketing methods of such companies.
Solution
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| Lavish Marketing of E-learning company Byju's |
Marketing is the top priority for these companies whereas the technical approach is their lowest. It is believed that if you are making quality product then sales and marketing don't require much investment. E-learning companies should learn from Coursera, Udemy, Google, etc. platforms which also sell online courses but in an ethical manner.
These companies should invest more on trainers and teachers. They should not force their skilled trainers to become salesman who should convert the trial class into a paid one. It is the duty for us as a society to stop falling into these kind of traps and become aware of what our kids actually require. The E-learning companies should stop targeting small kids.
We should teach our kids to focus on fact checking. The Google search seems ordinary but most of the time we have no idea how much we are capable of doing things if we know how to search on Google. The critical thinking and problem solving skills are very important for today's children because the kind of teaching environment these companies are providing do not teach basic set of skills.
Conclusion
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| Parents should be less insecure to avoid their kids from overburden |
Parents need to be aware of identifying what is right and what is wrong for their kids. The anxiety and insecurity for their future is understandable but it is also mandatory to realize that their kid is being made to work and study like a robot if stuck in learning traps like this. From now we can take steps to avoid these companies to acquire bigger market, otherwise after some years these education policies will become a norm and due to censorship, no one will be able to criticize or show the reality.
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