Ed-tech major, Unacademy, has issued a statement clarifying its decision to sack its employee, Karan Sangwan, who appealed to students to “vote for educated” in an online class, a video of which has gone viral on social media.
In a statement released on Thursday, the company said Sangwan was in “breach of the Code of Conduct” and “that classroom is not a place to share personal opinions and views”.
“We are an education platform that is deeply committed to imparting quality education. To do this we have in place a strict Code of Conduct for all our educators with the intention of ensuring that our learners have access to unbiased knowledge. Our learners are at the centre of everything we do. The classroom is not a place to share personal opinions and views as they can wrongly influence them. In the current situation, we were forced to part ways with Karan Sangwan aas he was in breach of the Code of Conduct,” Roman Saini, co-founder, Unacademy, wrote on the platform X.
We are an education platform that is deeply committed to imparting quality education. To do this we have in place a strict Code of Conduct for all our educators with the intention of ensuring that our learners have access to unbiased knowledge.
Our learners are at the centre of…
— Roman Saini (@RomanSaini) August 17, 2023
The ed-tech platform fired Sangwan over his remark in an online class, where he can be heard asking his students to vote for educated people to ensure real issues are addressed.
The tutor has now started his own YouTube channel and said that he will post details around the controversy on August 19. “For the past few days, a video has been going viral due to which I am in controversy and because of that controversy, my several students who are preparing for judicial service examinations are facing a lot of consequences. Along with them I have to also face consequences,” Sangwan said.
The viral video has also received reaction from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who backed Sangwan’s remark on platform X. “Is it a crime to appeal to vote for educated people? If someone is illiterate, personally I respect them. But public representatives cannot be illiterate. This is the era of science and technology. Illiterate public representatives can never build the modern India of the 21st century,” he wrote.
क्या पढ़े लिखे लोगों को वोट देने की अपील करना अपराध है? यदि कोई अनपढ़ है, व्यक्तिगत तौर पर मैं उसका सम्मान करता हूँ। लेकिन जनप्रतिनिधि अनपढ़ नहीं हो सकते। ये साइंस और टेक्नोलॉजी का ज़माना है। 21वीं सदी के आधुनिक भारत का निर्माण अनपढ़ जनप्रतिनिधि कभी नहीं कर सकते। https://t.co/YPX4OCoRoZ
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 17, 2023
Other politicians have also reacted to Sangwan’s termination by the ed-tech. “How does saying vote for literate politicians a biased opinion? Doesn’t that opinion positively influence young minds? Shame if merely expressing this view gets you to take someone’s job, Unacademy,” Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi, wrote.