March 27, 2024, New Delhi: The new academic session in many schools has just started or will begin in April. For many parents it is a tough period financially as they must not only pay the fees, which has seen a steep hike post COVID pandemic, but also buy new books and pay for all other annual school expenses. During the COVID pandemic years of 2020-21 and 2021-22, some state governments stepped in to check any increase in fees as the children were not going to schools but attending online classes. But once schools started regular classes, the big increase in fees soon followed with most private schools across the country. In some cases, parents have reported increases of as much as 30-50% on an accumulative basis over the last two years. In a few states like Uttar Pradesh, the Government even ordered schools to refund part of the school fee during the pandemic years but hardly any schools followed and the Government failed to enforce.

According to feedback from parents in tier 1 and 2 cities, the annual all-inclusive fees of good private schools now ranges between INR 1 lakh to INR 4 lakhs and the fees in good private schools in tier 3 and 4 cities range between INR 50,000 to INR 2 lakhs. With the current state of economy and household earnings not growing in the same proportion as school fees, majority of the parents are finding it difficult to cope. Some of them are dipping into their savings to provide a good education to their children.

In view of the many issues raised by parents related to school fee increases on LocalCircles in the last two years, the platform conducted a national survey to find out from parents of school going children how much fee increase they have experienced and whether their state government is active in restraining excessive fee increases by schools. The survey received over 27,000 responses from parents located in 312 districts of India. 66% respondents were men while 34% respondents were women. 45% respondents were from tier 1, 24% from tier 2 and 31% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

50% of parents surveyed say that the school their children go to have increased fee by 30% or more in the last 2 years

The survey first asked parents, “How much has the school your children go to increased the total fee in percentage terms in the last 2 years?” Of the 12,953 parents who responded no one indicated that the fee structure had remained unchanged in the last 2 years. In fact, 8% of the respondents indicated “more than 50%” increase in total fee in the last 2 years; 42% indicated an increase in the “30%-50%” range; 17% indicated increase in “20%-30%” range; 25% indicated an increase in the range of “10-20%” and 8% of respondents indicated a more moderate increase in fee of up to 10%. To sum up, 1 in 2 parents surveyed say that the school their children go to has increased fees by 30% or more on an accumulative basis in the last 2 years.

67% of parents surveyed say that their state government has not been effective in capping or limiting excessive fee increases by schools

Some of the states like Karnataka have in the past given clear guidelines on increase in school fee. Unfortunately, due to lack of enforcement, private schools hardly heed the government directives. In cases like Delhi, only schools which have been given land by the state government are expected to follow the directives on fee. The survey next asked parents, “Has your state government been effective in capping or limiting excessive fee increases by schools?” Out of 14,751 parents who responded to the query only 23% indicated that “yes, they have been”. Of the remaining respondents, 45% stated “no, they talk but they fail to make any impact”: 22% of respondents stated “no, they have not even taken up the issue”; while 6% stated “excessive school fee increases is not an issue in my state”; and 4% of respondents did not give a clear response. To sum up, 67% of parents surveyed say that their state government has not been effective in capping or limiting excessive fee increases by schools.

In summary, the survey shows that no parent surveyed has been unaffected by the jump in the free structure of their school going children in the last 2 years. In fact, 8% of the respondents indicated “more than 50%” increase in total fee in the last 2 years; 42% indicated an increase in the “30%-50%” range; 17% indicated “30%-50%” range; 17% of respondents indicated “20%-30%” range; 25% indicated a range of “10-20%” and 8% of respondents indicated fee increase of up to 10%. The survey question on whether the state governments have been effective in capping or limiting excessive fee increases by schools revealed that only 23% felt happy with the action taken.

Given the importance of quality school education and the squeeze that many households in the country are experiencing, there is an urgent need for education boards under Central Government and state governments to intervene and find effective remedies to contain school fee increases and create a cap of 5-10% as appropriate. If household earnings are growing under 10% a year, school fees just simply cannot continue to grow at 15-25% a year as experienced by many parents. It is just not sustainable.

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