Priyank Kanoongo, the head of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, has agreed to change Byju’s refund policy and conduct an affordability assessment of parents before providing them with courses and loans (NCPCR).
Kanoongo claims that two Byju’s agents addressed the NCPCR on behalf of the CEO (Byju Raveendran) and presented them a letter. The NCPCR will meet with Byju’s again on Monday because the children’s rights group has requested further information and papers.
After the meeting, Kanoongo noted, the NCPCR would provide them formal recommendations.He said that Byju’s had promised to assess parents’ ability to pay for courses and loans before offering them. They have consented to refrain from offering courses to households with monthly incomes of less than Rs 25,000. They’ve also promised to reimburse parents who would have failed the affordability test but were instead sold courses and loans for the entire cost of the courses, Kanoongo told.
The NCPCR summoned Byju’s CEO Byju Raveendran on December 17 in response to media claims that the ed-tech company takes advantage of students by aggressively selling and misrepresenting its courses.
In the aforementioned media report, some parents claimed that they were deceived and exploited, compromising their finances and future.