A week after child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued a summon to Indian edtech major Byju’s, the company has said that it will not sell courses to parents whose family income is less than Rs 25,000 per month.
To have a better understanding of their financial bandwidth, India’s most valued startup Byju’s will put in place an ‘affordability’ test for parents when their children sign up for its online courses, according to NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo.
“They have said they will start taking an affordability test. They have come to realise that it is not right to cheat kids. The test will help them filter out parents with family incomes less than Rs 25,000 a month. They will not sell courses to such parents,” Kanoongo told Economic Times.
The development follows the body’s last week summon to Byju’s CEO Byju Raveendran after some parents complained of being coerced into taking loans to fund courses for their kids by Byju’s sales team. The NCPCR had summoned Raveendran to appear in person on December 23 in this regard.
The company was represented by its founding partner Pravin Prakash at Friday’s hearing before NCPCR.
The Bengaluru-based edtech has said that it does not directly offer loans. Instead, it connects the parents of such students to reputed third-party banks/financial institutions who require financial support, where requested, Byju’s said in a statement.
Byju’s refund policy
“It is impossible for any sales executive to get a loan approved merely by making a potential customer sign some documents,” Byju’s said in the statement, adding that 98.5 per cent of refund requests submitted to it have been processed within 48 hours.
Byju’s has agreed to refund the full course fees to parents who would have failed the affordability test but were sold courses and loans, according to NCPCR chairperson.
The edtech has also promised to change its refund policy. The NCPCR chairperson said, “We have told them that loans under the Reserve Bank of India’s education guidelines do not cover loans for tuition. So, they must completely stop these. We have explained to them… they responded saying that the matter will get resolved immediately with affordability tests in place.”
The child rights body has also asked Byju’s to not take fees in advance and to clearly mention contact details of its grievance officer on the company’s website. “Whatever complaints we have got, that is still left to be dealt with on a case-to-case basis,” Kanoongo said.
In addition, the company has been asked to ensure police verification of non-teaching staff and effective regulation of online learning hours. The NCPCR will provide its communication in writing to Byju’s on Monday. “This is the beginning of a betterment of online education in India. I’d like to assure that they cooperated with this by turning professional instead of commercial,” Kanoongo said.
Byju’s also informed NCPCR that it has already provided free courseware to more than 55 lakh children from underprivileged families through its Education For All, the social initiative arm.
