Byju’s to conduct affordability test of parents before selling courses, says NCPCR chief: Report

Edtech major Byju’s has agreed to conduct an affordability test of parents before selling courses to them, said the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief, according to a report on Friday.

Two company officials from Byju's represented the edtech company on behalf of CEO Byju Raveendran and presented a letter before the NCPCR, Priyank Kanoongo told Moneycontrol. Kanoongo also told Moneycontrol that the NCPCR would provide them with written recommendations on Monday.

“Byju’s has agreed to conduct an affordability test of parents before selling courses and loans to them. They have agreed that they will not be selling courses to families having monthly income of less than Rs 25,000. Other than that, they have agreed to refund the full course fees to parents who would have failed the affordability test but were sold courses and loans,” Kanoongo said.

“We have also told Byju’s to conduct police verification of all the sales employees, who are directly in touch with students, kids and parents. Now we have asked for some more documents from them, which would be presented before us on Monday. We have told them all these things verbally and would be giving them in writing on Monday,” Kanoongo added.

In a meeting with NCPCR officials, the BYJU's representatives said that the commission issued a summon on the basis of a single report that "makes sweeping generalisations based on unnamed sources which comprise an infinitesimal fraction of its large user base", reported IANS on Friday.

The edtech major with over 150 million registered learners said that "it's not possible for it to verify the authenticity of the article because the said media house has refused to share either the data points it referred to, or the sampling methods it used to select those data points".

The company also said that the question of "mis-selling" does not arise because its sales professionals do not have the authority to close the sale of a product at the point of sale.

"By design, every sale is un-approved until it is verified by a triple-layered audit mechanism that reaches out to the interested customer through SMS, audio and video calls. The completion of a sale happens at the central level," according to BYJU's response.

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.

Last week, the child rights body had summoned Byju's CEO, asking him to appear in person on December 23 over alleged malpractice of hard selling and mis-selling of its courses for students. The Commission took action based on a news report that the sales team of Byju's was indulging in malpractices to lure parents to buy their courses for their children.

"As 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. lt has also been mentioned in the news report that some customers have also claimed that they were exploited and deceived, and had put their savings and futures in jeopardy," the NCPCR said in a statement. The Commission further said that the news report further alleged that BYJU'S has been actively tricking customers to enter into loan-based agreements for courses which may not be refunded if customers wished to do so, the statement said.