Are Private School Fee Hikes Pricing Out the Indian Middle Class?

Are Private School Fee Hikes Pricing Out the Indian Middle Class?

KAKALI DAS

The soaring summer heat has coincided with an intensifying issue faced by parents across India—an arbitrary rise in school fees by private unaided schools.

As the new academic session approaches, many parents are under pressure to pay school dues to secure admissions for their children.

Recent protests from cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have brought this matter into the national spotlight, pointing to a deeper, systemic issue in India’s education ecosystem.

Private unaided schools, which do not receive government grants or land, are self-sustaining institutions that generate revenue primarily through tuition fees. While these schools play a critical role in India’s educational landscape, it is often in this segment that grievances from parents are most pronounced.

In 2018, reports indicated that India had over 3.5 lakh private unaided schools, catering to nearly 38% of all students in the country. Given the population growth and increasing preference for private education, that number has likely risen in recent years.

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In the last two months alone, multiple cities have witnessed mass protests by parents over steep fee hikes, ranging between 10% and 40%. The tipping point for this recent wave of unrest appears to have originated in Delhi, where a group of parents and students from a well-known school protested against arbitrary fee hikes. The situation escalated when some students were reportedly suspended due to non-payment.

Delhi’s newly appointed Chief Minister Rekha Gupta took note and assured the public that the education department would investigate and take necessary action. The education minister further announced that audit reports from 677 schools would be uploaded online, promoting transparency and accountability.

Parents argue that fee hikes have become unmanageable. One Class 8 student’s parents from Delhi shared that fees increased by 40% in the 2022–2023 academic year, again by 40% the next year, and subsequently by another 18%, making the cumulative increase unbearable for most middle-class families.

Allegations have also surfaced of students being confined within libraries or classrooms for hours due to fee non-payment—a disturbing reflection of how financial stress is affecting children’s basic rights to education.

The Delhi Parents Association raised an important concern by stating that merely derecognising schools violating rules is not a long-term solution. There have been calls for the government to consider taking over such institutions. However, this proposition poses a critical dilemma.

If private unaided schools are absorbed into the government schooling system, would the quality of education and facilities match what parents initially opted for when enrolling their children in private institutions?

This problem is by no means restricted to Delhi. In Hyderabad, according to a Telangana Today report, fee hikes have ranged from 30% to 50%, causing massive unrest. In Pune, parents reported fee hikes of up to 50% and lamented the lack of adequate infrastructure.

In Kolkata, the Madhu Birla World Academy came under scrutiny for hiking fees by 30%, sparking fresh protests. Schools often defend these hikes by citing increased operational costs, higher salaries for teachers, inflation, and demand for better infrastructure and services.

While some of these reasons might hold water, critics argue that many schools manipulate parents by levying unjustified fees under various heads such as transportation, uniforms, and special activities.

For example, in Karnataka, the president of the Primary and Secondary Education Association justified annual hikes as necessary due to rising costs but agreed that any increase beyond 30% should invite scrutiny and complaints from parents.

The state’s education minister, MadhuBangarappa, acknowledged the parents’ grievances and encouraged them to consider government schools as viable alternatives. Yet, such advice rings hollow in a country where many government schools lack basic infrastructure, teaching staff, and quality education.

Transparency is one of the main demands from parents. Once a child is enrolled in a private school, the family is likely to remain there for over a decade. Therefore, parents argue that it would be easier to plan finances if there were a fixed percentage of permissible fee hikes annually.

The “Voice of Parents” organisation in Karnataka emphasized the need for a transparent mechanism that outlines how much schools can hike fees year-on-year and for what purpose. Parents also want to know how schools calculate these hikes and how exactly the funds are being used to benefit their children.

Further complicating matters is the rising trend of private coaching, often provided by the same teachers who are supposed to teach in school classrooms. Parents complain that many students are compelled to take extra tuition to understand subjects adequately, adding to the family’s financial burden.

This creates a conflict of interest, where teachers are not motivated to give their best in regular classes because they stand to earn more through private coaching. Shockingly, this glaring issue has not been thoroughly addressed by state governments.

At the root of this crisis lies a mismatch between rising educational costs and stagnant income levels. Research from a leading analytics center suggested that, despite corporate India witnessing a rebound post-COVID, salary hikes have remained modest. In 2025, the average salary increase across sectors is projected at just 9.2%.

This figure stands in stark contrast to the 20%–40% hikes in school fees. With inflation and living expenses climbing simultaneously, many families find it increasingly difficult to cope. The pressure is even more pronounced for households with more than one school-going child.

What further aggravates the situation is the lack of consistent and effective regulatory oversight. Education remains a subject under both central and state jurisdiction in India, but fee regulation is primarily left to the states.

In 2004, the Supreme Court in the “Modern School” case clearly stated that states like Delhi should limit school fee increases to prevent the commercialization of education. However, over the years, regulatory implementation has been uneven.

Tamil Nadu stands out as an example where, in 2009, the state government set up a dedicated committee to evaluate and regulate private school fees. This move helped provide a transparent fee structure for private schools. However, such models are not widely adopted across other states.

In April 2024, the Delhi High Court issued an interim order advocating for increased government oversight of private school finances and policies. While welcome, such measures remain sporadic and reactive rather than proactive and uniform across the country.

Another crucial concern raised by education experts and parents alike is the need for clearly defined frameworks on fee structures. If schools want to hike fees beyond a certain threshold, they should be required to justify those increments through detailed facility improvement plans or enhanced academic services. Besides, regular audits—available for public scrutiny—can go a long way in restoring trust between parents and educational institutions.

From a broader sociological perspective, the over-dependence on private unaided schools reflects a crisis in public education. Every taxpayer contributes to government schools through public funds. Yet, a vast majority of middle-class families opt for private education, clearly indicating that public institutions have failed to meet expectations. This imbalance increases the demand for private schools, giving them the leverage to charge exorbitantly.

To address this issue comprehensively, the government must simultaneously regulate private schools while strengthening the public education system. Enhancing teacher training, infrastructure, student engagement, and performance monitoring in government schools will help shift some of the demand away from private institutions. If public education becomes a viable and aspirational option, the pressure on private schools—and thereby the fee structures—could naturally reduce.

Basically, the steep and often arbitrary hike in private school fees is symptomatic of a deeper rot within India’s education sector. It is a manifestation of inequality, poor governance, and misplaced priorities. It requires urgent, structured intervention at both the state and central levels.

Transparency in school finances, consistent regulation of fee hikes, auditing of expenses, and substantial improvement in public education are all imperative to ensure that quality education remains accessible and affordable for every Indian child.

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