Russian bloggers are prohibited from selling courses and training without a license to provide educational services. This is stipulated in the package of changes to the law on education, which was drawn up by a group of deputies headed by the deputy chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Peter Tolsty, writes “Izvestiya”.
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“In 2022, the total income of online schools alone will reach 95 billion rubles. In the first quarter of 2023, industry revenue reached 46.7 billion rubles, according to the end of the year, the turnover of online schools increased by 30% and reached 123 billion rubles,” the explanatory letter to the bill reads. .
The document also states that the most popular courses are vocational training, health, business, psychology, exoterics, financial literacy, fitness and interpersonal relations.
According to the authors of the initiative, the probability of providing low-quality educational services without a license increases, which affects consumers. Unscrupulous bloggers also evade taxes and provide information and advisory services as an educational activity. They thus take advantage of tax benefits.
Yana Lantratova, one of the authors of the bill, said that the popularity of bloggers and various online schools among schoolchildren preparing for unified state exams makes the problem more urgent. At the same time, Lantratová said that there is no term blogger in the legislation, and the deputies could not agree on which of the sector agencies should regulate and issue a license in this area.
“There are some kinds of activities that bloggers cannot get accreditation for. Therefore, there are certain nuances,” said Maria Terentyeva-Galitskikh, chairman of the board of the National Association of Bloggers. Grigory Avetov, head of the Association of Education Experts, head of the Megacampus company, says that preparation for state exams cannot be regulated.
“If you hire a history teacher and he repeats this subject with a child for grades 5-9, can it be considered preparation for the state exam? “Many lecturers work as self-employed, they are not given any license,” says Avetov.
Online education and coaching should be regulated in Russia, as they are actively developing, and at the same time, violations of consumer rights are increasing, says Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative. According to him, the number of offenses in the field of online education has increased by 60 percent. He stated that in most cases the consumer does not know from whom he buys the course: from a legal entity, a private entrepreneur or a natural person. There are also many questions about the quality of the courses and teaching results, Pavlov said.
