FIITJEE is not having a good time after a recent newspaper advertisement got them a massive backlash.
As if the company wasn’t already struggling with the negative press because of the decision to hold the salary of their employees on hold for two months straight and claim that it was meant to be a lesson for the employees to work harder, now this issue is once again not painting the institute in a good light.
Several people online, including an IRS officer have called out the insensitive nature of the ad and how it is almost shameful.
What Is The FIITJEE Ad Controversy?
In a recent full-page advertisement being run in major newspapers, FIITJEE is seen boasting about how its students always score full marks and come out on the top.
The phrase at the top of the advertisement is “Devoid of any Real Competition, FIITJEE is Lonely at the TOP” clearly meant to show how good the institute is and how its students always come out at toppers in the exams they take.
The ad then gave the names and photos of 4 students who are among the toppers in the Delhi-NCR’s JEE Main 2024 exam, but what ticked off people was that the ad also gave the name, photo, and score of a female student who quit the institute and went to another coaching center.
The ad was seen mocking her and claiming that the ex-student could have secured a 100 NTA score in the exam and not 99.99 if she remained with FIITJEE and not shifted to an “EVIL Institute from Kota (now in Delhi) with a history of suicides”.
The ad states that around 80% of her JEE Main and Advanced course at FIITJEE was over but her parents were “lured by this EVIL institute” and how after that she “performed behind many FIITJEE students.”
The lack of respect for privacy for the female student and mocking of her score, which is still incredibly impressive, was not taken well online where people were put off by how shameful the coaching institute was in trying to promote itself while pulling down a hardworking student.
Read More: ResearchED: Why Govt. Wants To Shut Down The Kota Factory
Deputy Commissioner at Indian Revenue Service (IRS) Katyayani Sanjay Bhatia in a post on X/Twitter wrote, “A new low in advertisements @fiitjee. You are posting the picture of a child saying that she performed badly because she left your institute! I have blurred the picture because I don’t believe in this disgusting way of claiming your superiority by belittling a girl child.”
She added in another post how “We talk about parents putting pressure on kids for IIT JEE, but what about this manner of advertising where you shame a student for not performing? And claiming superiority by claiming that she would have performed had she been in your institute? Shameful.”
The IRS officer also pointed out how the ad was trying to use the tragic suicides that happened in Kota as a way to promote their own institute writing “They are claiming their superiority by talking about the institute with a ‘history of suicides’. Shameful. Suicides in Kota are an issue that concerns us all above petty competition but claiming in this manner is cheap.”
Bhatia also wrote that “Such advertising malpractices need to be checked-no institute has the right to shame students to claim its superiority.”
and called out Hindustan Times, the newspaper that ran the ad, to be more “mindful of the ads u r placing on page 1” and how this only “propagates the very wrong belief that right strategy=right result.”
The IRS officer talked about how results cannot be guaranteed in such a way and the only way is to work hard to one’s best ability and not worry about the result and concluded that “To publish a student’s picture in a national daily saying that they couldn’t perform is disgusting and puts such undue pressure on students.”
ZOHO co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu also commented on the ad writing “India has to get out of this ultra-competitive exam pressure on children and young adults. This is one area where I would *not* learn from East Asia but instead learn from Finland which has a superb state-funded educational system that serves every child without such competitive insanity.”
He also added “Intense pressure at a young age all too often destroys talent and creates zombified adults. It is the rat race to extinction. Intense competition is for companies serving a market and for sports, not for children in education.”
Several users also commented on how FIITJEE should be sued for harassment and defamation.
Among the many other praises the ad sings of the coaching institute, it also wrote how “We (FIITJEE) are the only Ethical, Transparent and Honest Institute in India”. What comes after exposing the identity of a young ex-student, whose face and name are spread across these ads reaching millions of people feels quite contradictory.
Image Credits: Google Images
Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth
Sources: Moneycontrol, Firstpost, Livemint
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: FIITJEE ad, FIITJEE ad controversy, FIITJEE ad criticism, FIITJEE newspaper ad, FIITJEE newspaper ad controversy, FIITJEE news, FIITJEE latest news, kota, FIITJEE kota, FIITJEE kota suicide
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