With the enhancements in the learning process of education, India has seen rapid growth in edtech firms. Recently, edtech firms have taken a step towards the self-regulatory body of numerous leading companies and set guidelines to conduct their business. Collectively the edtech companies have formed India EdTech Consortium under the aegis of the industry body IAMAI. This step came into being when the government announced that currently, they are working on formulating the policy to regulate it. Before we know about the entire incident, it is pivotal to always start from the basics. Let us know what Edtech is exactly and what IAMAI is. This blog post covers all the details about the recent incident of an ed-tech organization.
What Are Edtech Firms? What Do You Understand By The Word?
Edtech can be taken as a combination of education and technology. Before the pandemic, the edtech firms were already introduced advanced technologies tools to improve learning outcomes and develop access. It was the sector that was steadily growing. Covid-19 shut down schools, colleges, and universities, which causes a tremendous push. As institutions, students, guardians, and authorities shifted to the digital paradigm, remote learning became a modern option to becoming the sole one.
Four of the six Indian edtech businesses with values of $1 billion or more were founded in the previous year, demonstrating the industry's recent growth. However, it was observed that numerous online edtech platforms exploit the students due to monopoly; hence edtech firms welcome the IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) for the formation of the self-regulatory code in the country. Let us know the basics of the IAMAI.
About IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India)
- It is a non-profit industry body registered under the Societies Act, 1896.
- It aims to present the integrated voice of the business, which represents the government, consumers, investors, and other stakeholders.
- It aims to enlarge and improvise the online and mobile value-added services.
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News Update
On January 12, IAMAI declared the formation of a self-regulatory body called India EdTech Consortium, which comprises famous edtech companies in our country. The industry body mentioned that the Indian education organization influences over 500 million schools, colleges, and working professionals. It must follow a framework that aims to protect the rights of the learners in the country.
However, all the edtech companies perpetuate perceiving and adhering to the "Code of Conduct" and established a two-tier grievance redressal mechanism.
The president of IAMAI, Subho Ray, mentioned that the origination of this self-regulatory body is a crucial move towards safeguarding the learners as participation of students, teachers, and stakeholders in the online education ecosystem is increasing day by day.
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What Was The Need For The Edtech Companies To Roll Out Self-regulation?
The edtech firms roll out for self-regulation due to growing concerns which echoed in the Parliament that numerous edtech companies are involved in the several business methodologies and tricks which attract the consumers. Last month, the government introduced the advisory of the do's and dont’s considering the student and the guardians. They examine to sign up for the online courses offered by the education organization. The advisory also vigilances the companies against violations.
We must know about the problems or complaints these edtech firms face.
The government warned the people and the aspirants against enrolling in any courses without meticulous evaluation. Do you want to know about the reason behind it? Because several students believe in the advertisements which claim to offer free courses, but when the aspirants signed up, they found those courses as paid. Not only this, many people signed up unknowingly for the loans these companies arranged.
Now, you must have wondered how these collaborative plans will set things as rights.
Here, India Edtech Consortium has endorsed a three-page code of conduct for their business. It mainly analyses the concern that the government raises. All the participating firms have claimed to endorse the mantra “What is told is What is Sold”.
Know About the Code of Conduct
Apart from focussing on transparency and setting a warning against misleading ads, the code of conduct also mentioned that all the firms must implement the legal terms of qualification such as MBA, BBA, and many others only when it cooperates with the guidelines issued by the UGC and AICTE.
Edtech firms must use genuine and authentic examples of their students' success stories with validated proof of their performance.
It has been advised to the industry player to adopt the code of regulation provisioned by the Advertising Standards Council of India.
It also mentioned that all the policies related to refund and cancellation are conspicuously on the user interfaces platform in such a way that cannot be missed. Additionally, the platforms must display loans and finance-related FAQs.
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