The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) plans to amend its existing ‘Guidelines for Advertising of Educational Institutions, Programmes and Platforms’ with the objective of ensuring that advertising in the education sector will not undermine the well-being of students. All institutions, from universities and coaching classes to edtech platforms, will be subject to the updated guidelines.
The proposed amendment has been put together factoring in the physical and mental health of young students. For example, it requires advertisers not to portray average students or those with poor scores as demotivated, unhappy or receiving lesser appreciation from teachers, parents and peers. ASCI also advocates the need to avoid stereotypical portrayals based on gender or appearance and ensure that students who score poor marks are not branded as failures. Creating a false sense of urgency or the fear of missing out which could accentuate parental or student anxieties regarding education, too, will be considered a violation of the ASCI code. While there is no mandate about featuring students of any specific gender, brands are urged to avoid associating certain subjects with specific genders.
The existing ASCI code for education ads requires brands to not make misleading claims and mandates that all promises and claims made should be backed up with proof.
However, in 2022-23, the education sector was the top violator of the ASCI code, contributing to 27% of the objectionable ads that the industry body had processed. Out of this, 22% were from traditional educational brands and 5% from edtech companies.
In January this year, ASCI released a study called EdNext on the edtech segment’s advertising, which revealed a range of concerns. For instance, 73% of the parents surveyed felt that advertising by edtech brands depict too much academic pressure. Manisha Kapoor, CEO and secretary general at ASCI, says the guidelines are being updated on the back of the report’s findings.
“The new clauses are about recognising that education advertising impacts the minds of parents and growing children. Therefore, in addition to complying with the existing ASCI codes that mandate honest claims, advertisers should endeavour to make sure that ads are not harmful. The EdNext study and our conversation with various stakeholders such as academicians, consumers, institutes and the advertising industry have paved the way for the additional guidelines to come in,” says Kapoor.
ASCI will be inviting feedback and recommendations from consumers, advertisers, activists, agencies and a range of stakeholders until April 15 before moving to finalise the guidelines.
“Education is such a huge sector that impacts nearly every household and therefore, these guidelines must have a wider consultation. Once we examine all the feedback and revisit the clauses after the April 15 deadline, we will issue the final guidelines with any required additions or modifications,” explains Kapoor. The new recommendations will then be added to the existing ASCI code.
ASCI will work with advertisers, agencies and consumers to ensure compliance with the proposed norms for education advertising just like it is doing to enforce its influencer guidelines.
What the new ASCI guidelines advocate:
* Avoid showing students compromising on sleep or meals to study as this normalises habits detrimental to student health
* Must not portray an average or poor scorer as an unsuccessful student or a failure
* Avoid creating a false sense of urgency that could accentuate parental or student anxieties regarding education
* Stay away from associating certain subjects with specific genders alone
