Unacademy Sacks Teacher For His Remarks: The Controversy Explained

Educational technology platform Unacademy is in the eye of storm for firing one of its tutors over his remarks. Karan Sangwan, the educator, had urged students to vote for "educated candidates" in election. The video of Mr Sangwan's lecture appeared on social media and soon led to a huge debate. Some users slammed the e-learning platform for taking such a strict action. Others launched a campaign on Twitter, formerly X, where users urged others to uninstall the Unacademy app from their devices.

What did Karan Sangwan Say?

In a video going viral on social media, Mr Sangwan appealed to students to vote for educated candidates next time. The tutor was taking an online lecture where he talked about the current situation in the country.

After the strict action taken by Unacademy, Mr Sangwan started his own YouTube channel and announced that he will post details around the controversy on August 19.

"From the past few days a video has been going viral due to which I am in controversy and because of that controversy my several students who are preparing for judicial services examinations are facing a lot of consequences. Along with them I have to also face consequences," Mr Sangwan said.

What Unacademy said about the action taken?

The edtech platform justified the action taken against Mr Sangwan saying it has a strict code of conduct for all its educators and that classroom is not a place to share "personal opinions".

"We are an education platform that is deeply committed to imparting quality education. To do this we have in place a strict Code of Conduct for all our educators with the intention of ensuring that our learners have access to unbiased knowledge," the company said in a post on X.

"Our learners are at the centre of everything we do. The classroom is not a place to share personal opinions and views as they can misguide and wrongly influence them. In the current situation, we were forced to part ways with Karan Sangwan as he was in breach of the Code of Conduct," the statement further said.

Reaction on social media

Users quickly pointed out that the action taken by Unacademy is wrong.

"Karan Sangwan: Vote for Educated leaders. As per Unacademy asking students to vote for Educated leaders can misguide and wrongly influence them. Seriously!?" said one user.

Other users questioned why the educator was not given any notice, or even suspended, before termination of service.

Some posts supported the action taken by Unacademy. "Thank You @unacademy for terminating Karan Sangwan. He should have focused on putting more effort into the betterment of students instead of ranting. A teacher must remember that his task is to teach and not to preach. Let democracy and the people of India decide their leaders," said one user.

But soon, calls for uninstalling the app started gaining traction on social media leading to "#UninstallUnacademy" trending on X. Users posted screenshots of the app being removed from their devices.

"Unacademy app is now in the breakout stage in Google trends Uninstaller database. An app goes into this stage when more than 100,000 uninstalls are recorded within 24 hours. Unacademy is suffering for siding with the dictators," said one of the posts on X.