157. Education Learnings!

Nowadays there are so many companies in India who offer online classes that cater to your requirements right from class 1 to giving you training till you joint Engineering or Medical!  And they bombard you with so many messages that you are bound to see them and really think that just by attending these courses you stand a very good chance in succeeding to get into these institutions😊!

I had asked my daughter to attend a trial class of one company.  After the class, based on the feedback of my daughter, I had told them that we would not like to continue as my daughter was not interested.  After that, every month I would be getting a call from them asking as to how to proceed further.  Finally, I had to tell them that my daughter is not interested in the field they were teaching in and asking them to delete my name from the future calls.  Touchwood, so far, I have not received any call from them😊.  You can never tell when this will start again!!

I am writing about my experience with one other company here.  I will not be taking names as the purpose of writing is just to make you understand what you get. 

I saw an ad from a company who were conducting tests across the country for students and they had written that top students would be provided with scholarships for the courses.  I asked my daughter to write the exam with the intent to see how she fares in the exam, rather than wanting to attend the course.  She also agreed and gave the exam.  When the results came, her marks were in the 99.39 percentile!!  That meant that from the total students who wrote the exam, about 99.39% percent students had got lesser marks than her.  I don’t know if only students with average knowledge participated in the test or there were lesser number of students who sat for the exam. I had spoken to my daughter after the exam and she said she was not interested in any course. 

After a week of the result declaration, I got a call from them informing me that my daughter had done very well in the exam and I can get scholarship for joining their course.  I just told them that we are not interested in joining the course.  I thought this would end here and we will not be called again.

After 15 days, I got a call from a different guy from the company and he said that I can get the course for free as my daughter had got good marks in the exam.  My order would be clubbed with another parent who is ordering 2 courses for his two kids, both in the same class (I am still unable to digest as to why that parent wanted to pay for 2 copies of the same course when one copy could have been shared by his 2 kids😊!  I think the salesperson would have swayed the parent with some reasons to ensure that the order value was higher for his incentives)!  However, he said that if I get a call from backend, I had to say that it was I who had paid the fees and not the other parent.  Apparently, they have got a scheme or something like that where the charges can be reduced if you score greater marks.  I told him that I cannot lie as I have not paid the fees.  

Now I wanted the course for free but not at the cost of lying to get it.  So, with the help of my cousin, I was able to get in touch with some senior person in that company.  I told him the facts.  He mentioned that such a scheme existed but not at the cost of asking anyone to lie.  He said that he would speak to the person who had called me.  I got no call from their backend team for any verification😊! 

After a duration of a month or so, where I had to follow-up with them and the other parent, finally I got the course material.  Unfortunately, the USB stick with the course that was sent, was such that it would work only their-provided Tab😊.  Again, I got in touch with them where they informed me that I can use their app online and access the entire course as my daughter was registered to access the course.  Of course, they agreed to send a fresh USB stick with course material so that I can access it on my tab.  I checked with my daughter and she said that she can access the app from her iPad and the USB stick was not required.  So, I told them that we are ok with app access and the USB stick was not required. 

After going through the course material, my daughter said the course was not to her liking and she was happy with the courseware provided by the school and the content available on the Khan Academy website.

Since my mobile number is also added to this order, I get sms’s of OTP from them daily to access the class on their tab and also for asking me to join for the class.  I assume that the other parent’s kid is trying to access the class, and the SMS is being sent to my mobile😊!!  I called the company and told them that these sms’s should be sent to the other parent as it is for their kids.  They said that they would stop sending the sms’s.  But till today I am getting these sms’s.  I have blocked their number in my phone, but I still get these sms’s.  I think it would stop only when the education-year ends!!

Cheers till next time😊!

Today’s Observation

The quizzical expression of the monkey at the zoo comes from his wondering whether he is his brother’s keeper or his keeper’s brother!