Finance
By: Shree1news, 24 DEC 2021
The education Ministry Thursday issued an complex advisory to parents and students dealing with ed-tech companies asking them, among other things, to exercise caution while making payments. The advisory asks them to avoid the use of the automated debit option for payment of subscription fees.
“It has come to the notice of the Department of School Education and Literacy that some ed-tech companies are luring parents in the garb of offering free services and getting the Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) mandate signed or activating the Auto-debit feature, especially targeting the vulnerable families,” the ministry said in a statement.
Given the pervasive impact of technology in education, many ed-tech companies have commenced imparting courses, tutorials, coaching for competitive and other tests in an online mode, the ministry said.
The ministry stated the parents, students and all stakeholders in school education should be careful even as deciding on opting for online content and education being presented by using a host of Ed-tech companies.
“Some ed-tech companies may offer the Free-Premium business model where a lot of their services might seem to be free at first glance but to gain continuous learning access, students have to opt for a paid subscription. Activation of auto-debit may result in a child accessing the paid features without realizing that he/she is no longer accessing the free services offered by the ed-tech company,” said the advisory.
It also advised the users to ask for a tax invoice statement for the purchase of educational devices loaded with contents/app purchase/Pendrive learning.
“Do not sign on for any loans of which you are not conscious. Do now not deploy any cellular ed-tech packages with out verifying the authenticity. keep away from credit score/debit playing cards registration on apps for subscriptions. area an higher limit on expenditure according to transaction,” said the advisory.
It also cautioned them against including personal data like emails, contact numbers, card details, addresses etc on-line as these information can be bought or misused later.
“Do not share any personal videos and photos. Use caution against turning on the video feature or getting on video calls on an unverified platform. Keep your child’s safety at the utmost priority. Do not subscribe to unverified courses because of their false promises,” it said.
It additionally advised against trusting the ‘success stories’ shared via ed-tech groups without proper check as they might be a trap to accumulate extra audience.
