Chinanews client, Beijing, May 10 (Reporter Wu Tao) The State Administration for Market Supervision reported on the 10th that the market supervision department imposed a maximum fine of 2.5 million yuan on the "Job Help" and "Ape Guidance".
Prior to this, four off-campus education and training institutions of GSX (Gaotu Group), Xueersi, New Oriental Online, and Gaosi had been fined.
What happened to these well-known online education platforms?
Data map.
According to a survey conducted by a reporter from Chinanews.com, chaos is frequent in online education, and some so-called "famous teachers" cannot verify the authenticity at all.
There are also some online courses with hundreds of hours at every turn. Is it really necessary?
The quality of teaching is also uneven. Is it really appropriate to talk about "Two Metrics and Four Elephants" in elementary school composition?
Class hours exceed the standard, in some cases, one year's fee will be charged
The reporter found in the Gaotu Classroom APP that a certain period of the youth learning ability training camp in Gaotu Classroom lasts for 100 lessons and costs 3880 yuan.
Its online customer service told a reporter from Chinanews.com that the course is suitable for the primary stage.
There are also courses in Gaotu Classroom up to 191 lessons, with a fee of 3980 yuan. The page shows that this course is a "synchronized system course" for the second year.
The above course fees are paid in one lump sum.
However, in July 2019, the "Implementation Opinions on Regulating Off-School Online Training" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") issued by the Ministry of Education and other six departments stipulated that online training for primary and middle school students is charged according to the class hour, and each subject shall not be once. The fee is charged for more than 60 hours; if the fee is charged according to the training cycle, it is not allowed to charge a fee that spans more than 3 months at a time.
Image source: Screenshot of the official website of the Ministry of Education
In reality, in addition to the cases mentioned above, there are also many online education platform charges suspected of violations.
On April 23, Xueersi Online School, Gaotu Classroom, NetEase Youdao Premium Classes, and Yuandao Guidance’s violation of early admission fees were notified by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
Regarding pre-school education, although there are no relevant express regulations in terms of class hours, pre-charging, etc., the reporter observes that generally one year’s fee is pre-charged, and the class hours have also become longer.
Take a certain English class of Zebra under Yuandao Guidance as an example, 2800 yuan per year, 240 lessons, pre-paid, one-off payment.
After the "Opinions" was issued, the head of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education said in response to reporters that for pre-sale fees, a standard contract was provided to encourage the establishment of a third-party account monitoring mechanism to reduce consumption risks and protect the interests of the people.
But currently, few online education platforms adopt a third-party account supervision mechanism.
At the same time, online education "easy to pay and difficult to refund" incidents frequently appeared in the newspapers.
The reporter searched for "online education" on Black Cat complaints, and there were more than 3,000 complaints, almost all complaints about difficulty in refunding fees.
Teacher qualifications are "vague", and it is difficult for consumers to verify
The charge is very timely, so how is the quality of teaching?
A survey by a reporter from Chinanews found that many online education platforms are vague in terms of teacher qualifications, and it is almost impossible for consumers to distinguish between true and false.
In many online education apps such as the Xueersi Online School APP, the reporter noticed that many famous teachers only display the teacher qualification number, and some only display "have passed the teacher qualification examination", and even some teachers do not show whether they have obtained the certificate or not. Teacher qualifications.
In terms of teacher qualifications, the information is not transparent, and it is difficult for consumers to distinguish the authenticity.
Screenshot of an online education APP.
It is understood that how to check the authenticity of teacher qualifications can be inquired on the China Teacher Qualification Network, which is constructed, managed and maintained by the Teacher Qualification Guidance Center of the Ministry of Education, which requires the teacher’s personal identification information.
But almost all online education platforms do not publish this information. In other words, even if the online education platform publishes the teacher qualification number, it is difficult for consumers to judge the authenticity of the qualification because it is impossible to verify it.
The reporter contacted the online customer service of Xueersi Online School APP and asked how to verify the authenticity of the teacher's qualifications, and the customer service said to give feedback.
After a while, self-proclaimed Xueersi customer service phone feedback, "Because the inquiry requires some personal private information of the teacher, it will not be announced."
The "Opinions" clearly stipulate that personnel engaged in training in subjects such as language, mathematics, English, ideological and political, history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, etc. should have the corresponding teacher qualifications prescribed by the state.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for teachers to get mixed up.
On May 6, according to the announcement by the Chongqing Education Commission, the Beibei campus of Chongqing New Oriental Training School did not publicize the subject registration information, failed to publicize the class card as required, and the training teacher information on the public notice column was inconsistent with the teacher roster.
Suspected of false propaganda, harassing users
In terms of publicity, many online education platforms are also suspected of false publicity.
For example, in January 2021, four organizations including Homework Help, Yuanjiao, Gaotu Class, and Qingbei Online School were exposed to using the same actor to play a famous teacher in their respective advertisements. This "famous teacher" will be "taught for a lifetime Mathematics", for a while, "English teacher who has worked for 40 years".
Zebra English class is called "1 to 1 full-course professional tutoring", and a one-year fee is charged at a time.
Screenshots
The reporter learned during the interview that there are many online education courses that show "1 to 1", but the parents of children who have reported to the China News Network reporter said, "One teacher is one group, that is, one class. In The teacher in the software will receive the student’s homework, and she will encourage or correct it. Just like the teacher changes the homework for a child, it is a one-to-one class or one-to-one."
There are also online education platforms that like to tag teachers with various labels to attract children and parents.
The reporter observed that in the Gaotu Classroom APP, an elementary school Chinese teacher introduced "Guo Degang in the language circle".
In the syllabus of composition teaching, one of the sections is shown as "detailed and appropriate, two rituals and four phenomena".
Do you still need to learn "Two Metrics and Four Elephants" in primary school composition?
The "Guo Degang" training elementary school composition in the language field involves "two rituals and four images".
Screenshot of Gaotu Classroom.
If you feel that the course is unreliable, you can choose not to report, but after registering or listening to the course, what awaits you is often endless harassment.
Many netizens complained, "I registered for an online class, and Hujiang called me for 2 years." "Early Dao Japanese just registered their software and called me for 3 years." "Ask in the New Oriental APP customer service. Once there was a problem, I started calling and bombing every day."
The reporter tried to register for the small box class, and soon received a marketing text message stating that "the teacher has assigned an exercise."
A parent of a child told a reporter from Chinanews.com, “I reported Zebra’s trial class and felt it was inappropriate, so there was no renewal. In the days to come, Zebra contacted me seven or eight times, two phone calls, five or six. WeChat. Actually, when I contacted me for the first time, I made it clear that'the course is not suitable and I do not plan to renew it', but it still does not affect my subsequent harassment."
The online education platform is annoying, have you encountered it?
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