Coaching institutes Guidelines  The central government on Wednesday issued new guidelines to regulate misleading advertisements by coaching institutes, prohibiting false claims such as 100 percent selection or 100 percent job guarantee.

CCPA issued guidelines

The final guidelines prepared by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) have been issued following a number of complaints received on the National Consumer Helpline. The CCPA has so far issued 54 notices and imposed fines of about Rs 54.60 lakh.

Trying to stop misleading advertisements

"We have found that coaching institutes are deliberately hiding information from candidates. So we have come up with guidelines to provide guidance to those involved in the coaching sector. The government is not against coaching institutes, but the quality of advertisements should not harm consumer rights," Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare told reporters.

These are the new guidelines

The new guidelines prohibit coaching institutes from making false claims about the courses and duration offered, claims related to teachers, fee structure and fee refund policies, selection rate and rank in exams and guarantee of selection or salary hike. The guidelines titled 'Prevention of misleading advertisements in coaching sector' define coaching to include academic support, education, guidance, study programmes and tuition.

These activities were kept out

However, counselling, sports and creative activities are excluded. Coaching institutes cannot use the name and photograph of successful candidates or their comments in praise of the institute without their written consent.

They should display the disclaimer prominently. Khare said, many aspirants of civil services exam clear the preliminary and main exams by studying on their own and take guidance from coaching institutes only for the interview.