What India's 2024 coaching centre guidelines mean for your website and ads: what to publish, fees and refunds, topper claims, under-18 enquiries and results.
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Drafted with AI tools; researched, edited and approved by Althameem Ali. Our editorial policy
On this page · 10 sections
- What are the 2024 coaching centre guidelines, and do they apply in Kerala?
- What must a coaching centre's website show?
- How should fees, instalments and refunds appear online?
- Can a coaching website show toppers and ranks?
- What counts as a misleading coaching ad under the CCPA guidelines?
- How should enquiry forms handle students under 18?
- What should a results page show instead of rank claims?
- How do you keep the website in step with the prospectus?
- What does a website built this way cost?
- Ready to check your site against the rules?
This is a plain reading of the rules from the website's side, written by a team that builds education websites in Calicut. It is not legal advice: the guidelines leave much to the states, so check your own position with a lawyer before you change your admissions terms.
What are the 2024 coaching centre guidelines, and do they apply in Kerala?#
There are two separate documents, from two arms of the central government, and they work differently.
The Ministry's guidelines, as Careers360 reported from PTI (opens in a new tab) (18 January 2024), say centres may not enrol students below 16, should enrol only after the secondary school examination, may not engage tutors with less than a graduate degree, and must register new and existing centres within three months of the guidelines taking effect. For exorbitant fees or other malpractices, the report says a centre could be penalised up to ₹1 lakh or have its registration cancelled. The same report notes that regulating +2 level education is the responsibility of state and union territory governments, which is why the model needs a state law behind it.
Several states have bills of their own. PRS Legislative Research's state bill tracker (opens in a new tab), searched for "coaching" on 28 October 2026, lists coaching bills from Rajasthan, Assam and Jharkhand (2025), Haryana (2024) and Bihar (2010). Rajasthan's bill, as PRS summarises it (opens in a new tab), treats every branch as a separate centre that registers on its own and asks for batch sizes to be published on the website.
Kerala: no Kerala bill appeared in that search. The tracker is not a complete register, so we can only say we found no Kerala coaching law there on 28 October 2026. Ask your local education authorities or your lawyer before you rely on that. The CCPA's advertising guidelines are a different matter: they are national, so a centre in Kozhikode is covered whatever the state does.
What must a coaching centre's website show?#
The Ministry's list is short and practical. Per the Careers360 and PTI report (opens in a new tab), a centre should run a website with up-to-date details of:
- the qualifications of its tutors;
- its courses and curriculum;
- how long each course takes to complete;
- its hostel facilities;
- the fees it charges.
Read that as a sitemap: each item needs a section a parent can find from the menu on a phone.
Our Padavu Entrance Academy concept build, a fictional NEET, JEE Main and KEAM academy in Calicut, works this through: course tabs, a batch timetable finder, a faculty section, a fee table that shows every instalment, and a hostel section that says the academy helps families choose one rather than running one. It is a concept build with no students and no results: it shows a layout, not proof.
How should fees, instalments and refunds appear online?#
Three points in the Ministry's guidelines decide how the fee page reads, per the same report (opens in a new tab): fees should be fair and reasonable, receipts must be given for fees charged, and the fee on which a student enrolled may not be raised during the course. A student who leaves part-way through is refunded for the remaining period on a pro-rata basis within 10 days, with hostel and mess fees refunded as well.
On the website that means:
- One fee table for every course, with the total, the number of instalments, their amounts and their months.
- The refund rule printed beside the table, not in a PDF three clicks away. Padavu's reads: "Leave at any point and we refund the unused months pro rata within 10 days, plus any hostel deposit we hold for you."
- A dated fee table. "Fees for the batch starting June 2027" tells a parent which year they are reading.
- Tax stated. Say whether GST is included or added.
- No hidden charges. If there is an admission fee, a material fee or a test-series fee, it goes in the table.
The CCPA guidelines add the advertising side. MediaNama's report (opens in a new tab) (14 November 2024) says adverts must accurately reflect a course's duration, faculty qualifications and fees, and that disclaimers, such as those on fees, must sit in a clear font size and position. A fee banner on Instagram that says "from ₹X" with the conditions in grey six-point type is the thing to avoid.
Can a coaching website show toppers and ranks?#
Not the way many hoardings do. The Ministry's guidelines bar centres from making misleading promises or guaranteeing ranks or good marks to parents, per Careers360 (opens in a new tab). The CCPA's guidelines go further on publicity. Per MediaNama (opens in a new tab):
- a centre needs a student's written consent before using their name, photo or testimonial;
- that consent may be taken only after the student's success, never at admission;
- unverified claims about success rates, assured job placements and high exam scores are banned.
So a topper's photo is not banned outright, but a consent form signed on the first day of class no longer covers it. Keep a dated consent from each student you feature, taken after the result.
Our own view, beyond what the rules require: if you show a student, say what they studied with you, for how long, and whether it was a paid course or a free test series. A rank attached to a one-week crash course says little about a two-year programme.
What counts as a misleading coaching ad under the CCPA guidelines?#
The formal title is the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector, 2024. MediaNama (opens in a new tab) reports that they define a coaching centre as one providing coaching to more than 50 students, that they apply to every person engaged in coaching, and that endorsers who lend their name to a centre can be held liable too. News On AIR (opens in a new tab) (14 November 2024) adds that centres must accurately state their services, facilities and infrastructure, display disclaimers prominently and run a grievance redressal mechanism.
The table below is our own reading of those points for websites and ads, not the guidelines' wording.
Per MediaNama, the guidelines also prohibit tactics that create a false sense of urgency, such as claiming limited seats. That catches countdown timers and "last few seats" banners on landing pages, so check yours against our landing page checklist.
The regulator has used these powers. News On AIR (opens in a new tab) reported on 14 November 2024 that nine UPSC coaching institutes together claimed more than 2,600 selections in the previous year's civil services exam, when about 1,000 candidates were selected, and that the CCPA had issued notices to 45 UPSC coaching institutes and claimed over ₹56 lakh in penalties.
How should enquiry forms handle students under 18?#
Many entrance students are 16 or 17, which makes them children under India's data protection law. PRS Legislative Research's summary (opens in a new tab) of the Bill that became the Digital Personal Data Protection Act defines a child as a person below 18 and requires verifiable consent from a parent or legal guardian before their data is processed. The Rules were notified on 13 November 2025 and come in by phases; the provisions on children's data apply from 13 May 2027, according to AZB & Partners (opens in a new tab) (19 November 2025, read 28 October 2026).
Start with the demo class form:
- Ask for the parent's name and number as the main contact, with the student's details second.
- Ask the student's class or age, so you know when the parent's consent is needed.
- Write a short notice beside the form: what you collect, why, and who sees it.
- Ask only what you need. A demo booking needs no home address.
- Keep the record of consent with the enquiry in whatever system your counsellors use.
Our DPDP compliance checklist covers notices, consent records and the rest of the Act for anyone running lead forms.
What should a results page show instead of rank claims?#
A results page that counts everyone is easier to trust. In the Padavu concept build the section is called "How we report results": no rank posters, one report a year about the whole batch, and students named only with their written permission. Because it is a concept build, the report appears as a sample layout with no figures.
The pattern we recommend for a real centre:
Publish it once a year on a fixed date and keep old years online.
How do you keep the website in step with the prospectus?#
Under the Ministry's guidelines, the fee a student enrolled on may not be raised during the course, so the fee you print is the one parents will hold you to. When the brochure, the website and the WhatsApp poster disagree, the parent has a grievance before the batch starts.
A routine that works:
- One master fee sheet, owned by one person, dated, with every course, instalment and charge.
- Website, brochure and adverts generated from it each admission season, with the batch year on every page.
- A change log on the fee page: "Fees updated 1 March 2027 for the June 2027 batch."
- A faculty check each term, so the website never lists a teacher who has left.
- A quarterly review of live adverts against the CCPA points above, endorsers' posts included.
Our Fasht Institute concept build, a fictional training academy in Manama, sets its homepage out like a printed prospectus; it shows a layout, not compliance with Indian rules. For the marketing side once the website is right, read our coaching centre marketing strategy and our guide to marketing a training institute.
What does a website built this way cost?#
A custom-designed business website from us, up to 8 pages, starts from ₹60,000, with each extra page at ₹5,000, and takes 4 to 8 weeks. Our website care plan, for keeping fee tables, faculty pages and results current after launch, starts from ₹3,000 a month, billed yearly. All prices are before GST (18%) in India and before VAT where it applies in the Gulf; our pricing page has every starting figure.
Ready to check your site against the rules?#
Ask three questions: can a parent find every fee and the refund rule on a phone; does any page or advert promise a rank; and does your form ask for a parent when the student is under 18?
We build websites for schools, colleges and academies and run their marketing, including the reels and Meta ads for Zealous Learning, a tuition brand. Send us your current site and prospectus and we will tell you what we would change. For your legal position under the guidelines and any state law, speak to a lawyer; this post is a website owner's reading, not legal advice.
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Written by
Co-founder, Marketlube
Althameem Ali researched, edited and approved this post. Marketlube is a growth partner in Calicut building brands, websites, CRMs and campaigns for businesses across Kerala, India and the Gulf.
