Until students start demanding more from their institutions, the education system will remain a one-way street.
EdTech
Transparency is the new currency in many industries today. The food industry has brands like The Whole Truth questioning conventional labelling, True Elements focusing on clean labels and 100% whole grain products, Blue Tokai emphasising transparency in sourcing practices. Similarly, in homecare, brands like Koparo have brought transparency and ingredient clarity to cleaning products. These examples are emblematic of a consumer awakening, where people care about what they are buying and its impact. But in Education, where the stakes are arguably highest, there is an unsettling silence.
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In India, education is more than just schooling-it is a lifeline. Every year, families across the socio-economic spectrum invest their savings, their hopes, and their dreams into education. For many, it is not about acquiring knowledge but survival. However, this reality, filled with life-altering implications, remains cloaked in a shadow of ambiguity, and it begs the question: Why do we know more about what is in our cleaning spray than what lies behind the promises of an educational institution?
A $100-billion industry with little accountability
Education in India is a $100-billion industry, with growth rates outpacing many other sectors. Parents often spend a significant chunk of their income on schools, coaching centres, and now, EdTech. But Indian education remains an opaque world of lofty claims. Educational ads show a promise of upward mobility, featuring smiling graduates and attractive salary figures, yet the reality for many students does not live up to the glossy brochures.
As Varun Satia, Founder & CEO, Kraftshala, an outcome driven skilling institution, notes, “Parents don’t just buy education; they buy the dream it sells. But when that dream is underpinned by vague metrics and exaggerated outcomes, the cost isn’t just financial-it’s emotional. In a country where success is still measured by career titles, education serves as the gateway to socioeconomic mobility. Yet, for all the investment families make, there is no enforceable mandate requiring institutions to disclose placement rates, average salaries, or course outcomes.”
The sheer volume of new educational institutions further complicates the picture. In the last decade alone, India has seen a 248% rise in the number of colleges, equating to about 1.5 new institutions opening every day, without a weekend break. But instead of meeting a genuine need, this rapid expansion has diluted the quality of education. Degrees are often handed out with little regard for the quality of teaching, leaving graduates with a document that rarely translates into real-world skills or meaningful employment. For many students, the end result is a pile of debt and dwindling prospects.
EdTech’s broken promises
EdTech was supposed to revolutionize the Indian education system by making quality learning accessible to all. However, instead of democratizing education, it has often deepened the trust deficit. Many EdTech platforms continue to make exaggerated claims, such as mastering complex skills in hours or guaranteeing high-paying jobs after 2-3 days of bootcamp. These promises draw attention despite growing scepticism from students, largely because of a lack of regulation in the sector.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has responded to this issue with revised draft guidelines aimed at curbing misleading advertisements in the education sector. These guidelines emphasize the need to protect students' mental and physical well-being and prevent the portrayal of harmful stereotypes or false claims. However, ASCI’s self-regulation model has faced limitations. While the guidelines are a step forward, enforcement remains weak, and EdTech companies often find ways to sidestep compliance, especially in the digital space. The sheer volume of ads and the global nature of many EdTech platforms further complicate monitoring and accountability.
The need for an ‘educational pharmer’
In the food industry, influencers like the ‘Food Pharmer’ have driven companies to rethink their practices. They have pushed for clearer labels, stricter regulations, and consumer education. Imagine if education had a similar champion-an ‘Educational Pharmer’ who could expose misleading placement statistics, demand transparency on course outcomes, and hold institutions accountable for the promises they make.
Varun said, “Some institutions, fearing reputational damage, might balk at such transparency. But if the education industry expects to retain public trust, it will need to embrace accountability. In fact, students themselves can start taking charge. Graduates can start by visiting alumni pages of all institutions on Linkedin and seeing where the alumni are placed, what percentage of total alumni seem to be placed, and whether the claims made by the institution actually match the reality. They must reach out to alumni to verify job placement claims, experience, quality of faculty, quality of projects and so on.”
Sambit Dash, a VC partner and industry expert in brand strategy, remarked, “Education is one of the largest investments families make, yet it operates with little transparency. Even startups in consumer sectors are expected to demonstrate the benefit to customers in measurable outputs, but many educational institutions are often not held to the same standards. Investors too are beginning to look for ventures that can balance profitability with measurable outcomes to the student, because the next wave of consumer trust will be built on accountability”.
Right now, these questions are rarely asked, leaving educational institutions free to publish inflated claims.
The way forward: demanding transparency
Until students start demanding more from their institutions, the education system will remain a one-way street. There is no downside to transparency in an industry that shapes our futures-only an upside, where parents and students become better informed, institutions who are doing genuinely great work get recognized, and the educational promise shifts closer to the reality it represents.
And until we reach that point, the responsibility lies with students and parents to treat education as an informed investment, questioning what lies beyond the labels.
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