Count the N "pits" of off-campus training courses

　　Unlicensed, unlicensed, unqualified disputes frequently occur, and it is difficult to defend rights

　　● Chaos in off-campus training institutions, such as running schools without a license, operating beyond the scope, and lack of guarantees for teachers, are still commonplace

　　● Vigorously rectifying and rectifying off-campus training institutions is an urgent problem currently faced. This problem cannot be solved, and a good education ecology is difficult to form

　　● Training institutions should run schools in accordance with the law, improve teaching quality, provide after-school services, accept the supervision of relevant departments, and must not charge other fees beyond the publicly announced items and standards, and must not apportion fees to trainees in any name or forcibly raise funds

　　□ Our reporter Han Dandong

　　□ Chen Yiqi, an intern of our newspaper

　　Recently, when Chen Baosheng, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Education, went to Beijing to investigate the comprehensive reform of education and the situation of party history learning and education, he emphasized that Beijing must solidly promote the work of reducing the burden of compulsory education students’ homework and off-campus training, and strictly regulate the management of off-campus training institutions. Hit the policy combination punch.

　　Earlier, Chen Baosheng pointed out at the 2021 National Education Work Conference at the beginning of this year, “Strongly manage and rectify out-of-school training institutions. This is an urgent problem that cannot be solved. It is difficult to form a good education ecology. This is a matter. It must be done, we must take the initiative."

　　Under strict supervision, many off-campus training institutions have accelerated the pace of internal reorganization.

However, a recent investigation by a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that chaos in off-campus training institutions, such as running schools without a license, operating beyond the scope, and lack of guarantees for teachers, are still commonplace.

　　Unlicensed school running repeatedly banned

　　Vicious competition disrupts the market

　　On March 11, Beijing Haidian District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau exposed 5 training institutions that run schools without a license, namely Beijing Tiangui Education Technology Co., Ltd., Centennial Talent (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., and Beijing Jianwei Online Education Technology Co., Ltd. Company, Beijing Youshenghuihui Education Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Yixiao Education Technology Co., Ltd.

　　It is not the first time that these 5 training institutions have been exposed, especially the excellent education, which has been exposed 7 times.

　　Running a school without a license was originally an illegal operation, but now it has become a "normal operation" for many training institutions.

According to a survey conducted by a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily, many consumers learned that the institution they had signed up for did not have school qualifications or operated beyond the scope of their rights in the process of defending their rights.

　　A netizen with Douban's user name Taozi said that the spoken English training institution she signed up for was actually an education consulting company and did not have a school permit issued by the Education Bureau.

　　Wang Yanhui, a lawyer at Shanghai Hengyanda Law Firm, pointed out that relevant laws and regulations in my country clearly require education and training institutions to have certain qualifications.

Generally speaking, it includes applying for a business license at the local market supervision bureau and applying for a school permit at the local education bureau.

Applicants can check the school information and qualifications of training institutions through the national off-campus training institution management service platform or the national off-campus online training management service platform to avoid being deceived.

　　Some municipal supervision bureaus have also reminded that consumers should pay attention to checking whether the other party has obtained a school permit issued by the education administration department or the human and social security department when choosing a subject or vocational skill or vocational qualification education and training institution.

If the training institution has not obtained a school permit, it is recommended to choose carefully.

　　Yang Xin (pseudonym) has worked in a well-known education and training institution for many years. According to him, some training institutions have changed the business model of "register first and learn later" in order to acquire and retain customers, and sell high-priced courses at ultra-low prices. To customers.

"For example, some will launch'free reading and learning experience courses', etc., and take out courses of several hundred yuan or several thousand yuan for students to learn for free. Some institutions are even'losing money to earn word of mouth'."

　　Liu Deliang, a professor at Beijing Normal University Law School, believes that the business model of training institutions mentioned by Yang Xin is unfair competition.

"Courses and prices are advertising content. According to Article 42 of the Private Education Promotion Law, the enrollment guidelines and advertisements of private schools should be reported to the examination and approval authority for the record."

　　In Wang Yanhui's view, this kind of unfair competition will damage the quality and reputation of the organization itself, affect the organization's subsequent development, and at the same time damage the interests of consumers; on the other hand, it will disrupt the normal price order of the market. , Which makes it difficult for consumers to judge the value of courses from the price, which is not conducive to the optimal allocation of resources.

　　Lack of guarantee for teachers

　　Institutional fees are rising

　　The rapid development of the education and training industry and considerable salaries have attracted more and more job seekers. However, uneven entry barriers have led to uneven qualifications and teaching quality of lecturers in different institutions or within the same institution.

　　Zhang Yu (pseudonym) is now a first-year graduate student at a university in Beijing. She had signed up for a tutoring agency while preparing for the postgraduate exam.

After studying for a period of time, she found that the teaching quality of this institution was not high. The founder was also a first-year graduate student when she founded the institution.

"Those teachers are all graduate students who are still in school, and the lectures are not very good, there are a lot of typos in the materials prepared for the students, and they are messy when answering questions in the group, and they have no clue."

　　Li Meng (pseudonym) once worked in a national chain children's English training organization. According to her, her training organization has no rigid requirements for teacher qualification certificates. As long as she has been trained and obtained the qualification certificate issued by the organization, she can formally lead classes and lectures.

　　Wang Yanhui said that the State Council requires that the personnel engaged in training work must abide by the Constitution and laws, love education, have good ideological morality and corresponding training capabilities, and engage in knowledge of subjects such as language, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, and biology. The trained teachers should also have corresponding teacher qualifications.

"Persons who have no teacher qualifications, such as graduate students in school, are not allowed to engage in training."

　　A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily found that in addition to a mixed faculty of teachers and uneven teaching quality, some training institutions would also raise tuition overtly and secretly.

　　According to Li Meng, her institution basically raises prices once a year, ranging from 1,000 yuan to 2,000 yuan. Now the tuition fee for a year has exceeded 20,000 yuan.

　　"The level of fees charged by profitable training institutions, whether or not price increases, and the extent of price increases are determined by the market, are market behaviors. Consumers' judgment of whether institutions charge and increase prices is legal or not depends mainly on two aspects. First, fees are based on the contents of the admissions guide. For one part, the training institution should report to the competent authority for approval. It is an illegal act to increase the price without filing. Secondly, it should look at the contract signed by both parties after filing. If the contract stipulates that the price does not increase or limits the extent of the price increase, both parties should respect The contract stipulates." Liu Deliang said.

　　Prepaid consumption provokes disputes

　　It is twice as difficult to apply for a refund

　　Prepaid consumption has become the preferred mode of consumption for most consumers based on its convenience and preference.

Especially for education and training institutions, taking into account the long-term and continuity of courses, prepaid consumption is now widely promoted.

But this also lays a hidden danger for the difficulty of refunding due to personal or institutional reasons in the later period.

　　In 2019, the "Regulations on Prepaid Consumption Management of Off-campus Training Institutions in Beijing Subjects (Draft for Comment)" clearly stipulated that training institutions charge by class hours, and each subject shall not charge more than 60 class hours at a time; fees are charged according to the training cycle, No one-off fee that spans more than 3 months shall be charged.

　　But this did not reduce or suspend the refund disputes of training institutions.

Beijing’s Haidian District Market Supervision Bureau recently stated in its “Consumption Warning” that since the beginning of this year, the Municipal Supervision Bureau has received a high number of disputes over refunds from education and training institutions.

The bureau also exposed education and training institutions with a large number of complaints and a low resolution rate from January 21 to February 20 this year. Among them, the 100-year-old talent has the highest complaint rate, with 38 complaints received.

Outstanding education has the lowest resolution rate, which is 0.

　　In this regard, Wang Yanhui said that the refund and deduction of training institutions should be implemented in strict accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code Contract and the agreement between the parties.

Although the deposit is generally not refundable as a guarantee for breach of contract, the refund caused by the merchant should not be deducted for breach of contract.

If the consumer accidentally signs the Overlord contract, the basically fair clause in the contract is valid, while the obviously unfair clause restricting the rights of consumers is invalid.

　　Liu Deliang added: “Article 586 of the Civil Code stipulates that the parties may agree to one party to pay a deposit as a guarantee for the creditor’s rights. The amount of the deposit shall be agreed by the parties, but shall not exceed 20% of the subject amount of the main contract. Generally speaking, don’t pay casually. For the deposit, we must be especially alert to the clauses in the consumer agreement that the deposit will not be refunded, so as not to be deceived. If the training institution promises verbally, the applicant should write the contract in writing on request to facilitate future evidence collection and rights protection."

　　Zhang Yanyan (pseudonym), who was studying at a university in Beijing, signed up for an oil painting class in 2019. In 2020, she was unable to attend classes normally due to the epidemic. She considered that her studies were tight and she had little harvest in the oil painting class, so in August 2020 Negotiate a refund with the agency.

Since I did not sign a contract with the other party at the beginning of the registration, I encountered a series of troubles in the refund process.

　　Although Zhang Yanyan's organization agreed to refund the fee, it put forward a condition.

"Let me find a classmate to take my place, and then deduct the cost fee of 1,500 yuan from the registration fee of this classmate, and then refund me 2,500 yuan. But I don't want to pull others into the pit, so I have not successfully refunded the fee so far. "Zhang Yanyan said.

　　Regarding Zhang Yanyan’s dilemma, Wang Yanhui reminded: “Although it is not necessary to sign a contract to sign up for training institutions, signing a contract is more beneficial to both parties and can clarify the rights and obligations of both parties. In the case of not signing a contract, the applicant should stay. Payment vouchers, WeChat chat records, phone recordings and other evidence used to communicate with merchants are used as vouchers for rights protection."

　　A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" found that there are numerous disputes about refunds of training institutions caused by prepaid consumption, and there are many reasons for institutions to refuse refunds or deduct "liquidated damages" ranging from 20% to 30%.

In order to reduce losses, training institutions even put forward completely unreasonable requirements.

However, considering the high cost of safeguarding rights, many customers end up suffering dumb losses.

　　Wang Yanhui said that prepaid consumption is a marketing model commonly used by business operators nowadays, that is, consumers pay a certain fee to the business in advance before the actual consumption, and then the business provides the corresponding goods or services.

In order to reduce such disputes, the most important thing for consumers is to keep their eyes open, not to be fooled by the prepayment discounts, and not to impulsively deposit too much money, otherwise it may cause economic losses.

　　Run schools in accordance with the law to improve quality

　　Continuously increase awareness of evidence

　　Liu Deliang believes that the current laws and regulations such as the Private Education Promotion Law are basically relatively complete, and there are clear regulations on the approval and filing of training institutions.

There are chaos in training institutions, and the main problem is that there are many problems in the process of administrative law enforcement. "Currently, there are cases of non-compliance, lax law enforcement, and failure to investigate the law in our country."

　　He also pointed out that the training institutions themselves lack the concept of good faith, and the public's awareness of laws and rights is not strong enough, they do not strictly control the content of the contract, and lack the awareness of evidence preservation.

　　Wang Yanhui said that if training institutions want to develop well, they need to work hard from three aspects.

First, education departments, market supervision departments, human resources and social security departments, public security departments, cybersecurity and informatization departments, and other relevant entities should unite to supervise various tasks in the education and training industry, and achieve comprehensive and effective supervision; second, The education department should take the lead and carefully organize the annual inspection and annual report publicity work in accordance with relevant regulations. We should pay special attention to abnormal educational institutions, and strive to find and solve related problems early; third, timely review the list of training institutions and the main The information is publicized and announced to provide customers with important references before choosing to avoid such problems.

　　"In addition, training institutions should also run schools in accordance with the law, improve teaching quality, provide after-school services, accept the supervision of relevant departments, and must not charge other fees beyond the publicly announced items and standards, and must not apportion fees to trainees in any name or forcibly raise funds. For the training courses that the trainees have not completed, the refund matters should be handled in strict accordance with the contractual agreement between the two parties and the relevant laws and regulations to minimize disputes." Wang Yanhui said.