“With other expenses like housing and car EMIs, the escalating cost of education adds to their financial burden. Hidden costs for extra classes, sports, theatre and supplies further complicate matters,” he said.
My son’s school fees have been consistently compounding at 10%/annum. The school does not even bother to explain the hike and the higher fee simply appears on the payment app! When parents protested, they said please look for another school for your kids!
— Udit Bhandari (@GurugramDeals) April 9, 2024
Bhandari is one of thousands of parents in India grappling with the high cost of quality education. With primary school fees in big cities and small towns having shot up in the past decade, many like him are also forking out a small fortune for their children’s education.
Parents have been pushed to tighten their belts and sometimes even take loans to cope as the hike in school fees often outpaces inflation and wage growth.
“We haven’t been able to buy a car, despite needing one since our second child was born last year. We can’t use a bike anymore,” Anuja Karwal, a parent from Panipat, told ThePrint.
“We’re already paying around Rs 1.5 lakh for our daughter’s education in third grade, and that cost will double in three years when our second child starts school,” she added.
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Telling figures
Figures from Gurugram are telling. According to their official websites, Scottish High International School has an annual composite fee of Rs 3.9 lakh for nursery and lower kindergarten. It surges to Rs 4.7 lakh for Classes 11 and 12, excluding transportation.
Shiv Nadar School charges Rs 3.6 lakh a year for kindergarten, Rs 3.4 lakh for Class 6, and Rs 3.6 lakh for Class 12. This doesn’t include transport fees.
The Heritage International Xperiential School has set its annual fees at Rs 1.69 lakh for Classes 1 and 2, Rs 2.18 lakh for Classes 9 and 10, and Rs 3.19 lakh for Classes 11 and 12. Meals and transportation costs are billed separately.
Delhi is no different. Delhi Public School Vasant Kunj increased its tuition fee for nursery to Class 12th from Rs 90,000 in 2019-20 to Rs 1.7 lakh annually in 2024-25, according to a letter submitted this year by parents as part of a writ petition against a fee hike in the Delhi High Court.
Gurugram and Delhi aren’t the only ones with steep education fees.
“The cost of education in India has been steadily increasing, placing significant stress on families, particularly those in middle- and low-income brackets,” said Bibhu Prasad Das, co-founder of education fintech firm Propelld, told ThePrint.
Das added that recent data from a survey by an edtech company, Schoolnet, showed that parents are spending 20 percent to 30 percent of their annual household income on education. “This figure encompasses not just tuition fees but also related expenses such as textbooks, transportation, exam fees, and other hidden costs,” he explained.
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‘Parents are active participants’
Rising aspirations and the lack of quality government schools are primary reasons why parents are increasingly turning to private English-medium institutions for their children’s education. As more families strive for upward mobility, they see English-medium private schools as essential for ensuring better future opportunities for their children.
Private schools are a highly chaotic market in which parents are active participants. They are willing to pay as much as schools are demanding, and parents don’t want simple schooling. The government school system has been marginalised by the growth of this great private school market. The government school system has been marginalised by the growth of this great private school market.
Krishna Kumar, former director of NCERT
According to the government’s Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data, the number of students enrolled in private schools increased by 6.5 percent in 2019-2020, while the number in government schools decreased by 1.3 percent. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, close to four million students shifted to government-run schools in the 2020-21 academic year, highlighting financial difficulties faced by parents.
Bhandari was of the opinion that an annual household income of Rs 20-25 lakh was necessary to afford a good school nowadays. “My wife and I both have jobs, so we can manage to pay these school fees. But it’s middle-income families that are really feeling the strain. They face steep school fees, followed by the costs of private colleges, only to see their children struggle to secure well-paying jobs,” he said.
Bhandari may be managing, but the steep private school fees are completely out of reach for many other parents.
The 75th round of National Sample Survey (NSS), released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in 2019, reveals significant disparities in educational expenditure between government and private unaided institutions across different levels of schooling, with the gap widening more and more as a student moves higher. The survey titled ‘Household Social Consumption on Education in India’ covered the period of July 2017 to June 2018. It is the latest NSS survey on education expenditure.
‘Annual fee hike of 10% is justified’
Schools maintain that they don’t have a choice with costs going up each year.
Sudha Acharya, principal of ITL Public School in Delhi’s Dwarka, said private schools need to continuously invest in modern facilities.
They also need to provide resources such as skill labs, language labs, CCTV cameras, swimming pools, functional playgrounds and various clubs, all of which can be quite costly.
An annual fee hike of 10 percent is justified because schools need to cover teacher salary increments, DA increases, and hiring of permanent staff. If schools aren’t allowed to raise fees even by 10 percent, how will they attract and retain qualified permanent teachers?
Sudha Acharya, Principal, ITL Public School, Delhi
But parents complain about the lack of transparency in school fees. They express concerns about the significant variations in private school fees, not only from school to school but also from state to state. These differences are even more striking in schools offering international curricula, such as the Cambridge system and International Baccalaureate (IB).
Venkat Sainath, joint secretary of the Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA), told ThePrint that school fees vary significantly among institutions within states. “For example, the cost for a Class 10 education can range from as low as Rs 20,000 to an astonishing Rs 12 lakh in Hyderabad. This stark difference highlights a troubling lack of transparency in fee structures. It has become a nightmare to afford school education these days,” he said.
Parents complain that schools often charge huge fees even when they don’t offer any major facilities.
For instance, Mahesh Mishra, whose daughter, an eighth grader, attends a prestigious private school in Delhi’s Dwarka area, pays Rs 1.8 lakh as annual school fees, excluding transportation costs.
“Though the government has denied permission for fee increases, we see hikes of nearly 10 percent each year. This is despite lack of facilities. The swimming pool has been lying dysfunctional for four years now. We started at Rs 90,000, and now we’re at Rs 1.8 lakh. Due to this ongoing rise, we chose to enroll our second child in a more affordable school,” Mahesh Mishra told ThePrint.
The challenges aren’t confined to parents of older students; those with younger children are also feeling the impact.
Shah Taj Khan, a parent from Hyderabad, shared that her daughter’s school charged Rs 65,000 for its Pre-Primary Programme 2 (PP2) until last year. But this year, the fee has surged to Rs 80,000 annually, excluding transport and other charges.
“There has been no explanation for the fee increase, and in fact, there have been no changes in the facilities provided compared to last year,” he said.
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Hidden costs & feelings of ‘exclusion’
Parents also complain about hidden costs. Most schools typically charge tuition fees, annual fees, development charges and transportation costs. But often several additional hidden expenses are involved as well. For example, many schools require parents to buy uniforms, books and bags exclusively from them.
As Anil Dhumal, parent of a Class 5 student at a private CBSE-affiliated school in Pune, put it: “The school mandates that students buy new uniforms every year, and they must be purchased directly from the school because they are uniquely designed and not available elsewhere. They charge Rs 15,000 for a complete uniform and an additional Rs 2,000 for shoes. This is sheer injustice and exploitation of parents.”
A 22 October post by Bengaluru-based ENT surgeon Jagdish Chaturvedi on social media platform X about a Rs 8,400 fee for parent orientation at a junior kindergarten sparked widespread outrage. Chaturvedi shared a screenshot with the breakdown of the total fees of Rs 1,51,656, which included a Rs 55,638 admission fee and Rs 30,019 caution money.
“No parent will ever agree to pay even 20 percent of this for a Doctors consultation,” he joked in his post.
8400 INR parent orientation fee!!!
No parent will ever agree to pay even 20% of this for a Doctors consultation..I am planning to open a school now 😁 pic.twitter.com/IWuy3udFYU
— Jagdish Chaturvedi (@DrJagdishChatur) October 22, 2024
Mishra, the Delhi parent quoted above, said his daughter’s school charges an extra amount for digital access cards every year. “The card should not cost more than Rs 500. But the school charges Rs 1,500 every year ahead of the session to issue a new card. It is not a big amount but still unnecessary,” he said.
Parents also expressed concerns about schools continuously introducing extracurricular activities with additional fees.
“In my daughter’s school, new subjects like painting, pottery and swimming have been added, and parents are charged separately for them. Previously, these activities were included in the standard school fees,” said Atul Reddy, father of a Class 6 student in Bengaluru. “If you don’t pay for them, your child won’t be allowed to participate, which can lead to feelings of exclusion. As a result, parents are forced to cover these extra costs.”
Meeta Sengupta, an educationist and founder of the Centre for Education Strategy in Delhi, believes that quality education comes at a cost, and it is essential to pay well to retain motivated teachers. But she also emphasised the need for a governance policy that ensures schools deliver on their promises.
Quality teachers need to be rewarded. Yet some schools charge high fees while underpaying staff, leading to a disconnect between costs and educational value. It’s essential to assess whether you’re getting value for your money.
Meeta Sengupta, Educationist
Sengupta warns that imposing price pressures on schools could lead to mediocrity. While regulations can be counterproductive for private institutions, she believes strong community involvement and effective school governance are crucial.
“Investing in governance means doing the right thing for students at the right time. We lack it in our schools at present,” she adds.
Fintechs offer EMIs as a solution
In recent years, the soaring costs of quality school education have led to the emergence of businesses focused on providing financial relief for parents. Many fintech companies are offering innovative solutions such as loans and no-cost Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) options in partnership with schools to help ease the financial burden.
Many of these ventures sprang up during the COVID-19 pandemic when families faced significant challenges in making school fee payments due to job losses and salary cuts.
One such company is Eduvanz, which offers flexible payment solutions to ease the increasing financial burden of education and meet growing demand from families.
“At Eduvanz, we provide a zero-interest loan solution where educational institutions contribute a portion of the course fee as a subsidy,” said its founder Varun Chopra.
“This model not only eliminates the financial burden of interest payments for our borrowers but also enhances enrolment rates for institutes, supporting both students’ financial ease and institutional growth,” he told ThePrint. Chopra said Eduvanz has disbursed Rs 3,000 crore in education loans so far, with Rs 300-400 crore allocated to the schooling sector.
He also said that such loans are particularly sought after by middle-class families earning between Rs 25,000 and Rs 75,000 a month. These families are typically educated, have two children, and reside in tier 1 or tier 2 cities.
A parent from Kalyan in Maharashtra, who works as a freelancer, said the option of paying the school fees in instalments was a big help. Without a steady income, managing the quarterly payments of his child’s annual Rs 1.5 lakh tuition fees was a significant challenge.
The EMI option has been a lifesaver for me. It not only allowed me to pay the fees on time but also alleviated the financial stress that came with those lump sum payments. This flexibility has made it possible for me to ensure my child’s education isn’t compromised. I would not have been able to afford the fees otherwise.
An affected parent
Many fintech firms offering EMI options for school fees struggled to survive after the pandemic because of issues such as defaults on repayments, which ultimately led to their closure. Some of them, including Financepeer (now Leo 1) and Shiksha Finance, have halted these practices after the pandemic.
Chopra highlighted the challenges in providing loans for quality school education, especially with new regulations for unsecured loans suggested by regulators.
He said one major challenge arises from the Right to Education (RTE) Act, which mandates that schools must continue to support students regardless of their fee payment status.
“This can adversely impact EMI recovery rates. The situation became even more complicated during the pandemic, as many parents began to question the necessity of payments due to the transition to online education, resulting in a potential increase in defaults,” he explained. Under the RTE Act, 2009, schools are prohibited from detaining children till they complete elementary education i.e. Class 8.
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Chorus for regulation of school fees
Parents’ associations across the country have been pushing for comprehensive regulations governing school fees. Even in states/UTs where such laws exist—Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat, among others—parents argue that implementation often falls short.
In the national capital, for instance, schools built on land allocated by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) must obtain approval from the Delhi Directorate of Education (DoE) before raising fees. However, parent associations claim that many schools often bypass this requirement and increase fees without prior approval.
In July, over 20 Delhi Public School (DPS) Dwarka students were reportedly barred from entering the classroom after the summer break because their parents refused to pay an increased fee, which they claimed was raised in violation of DoE regulations.
Parents alleged that their children’s names had been removed from the school rolls. The names were later reinstated after parents appealed to the Delhi High Court.
“This situation occurs every year in one school or another,” said Aprajita Gautam, president of the Delhi Parents’ Association.
“Almost all schools in the capital have raised fees this year, and those whose fee hike proposals were denied have still increased their fees in violation of regulations,” she alleged.
The Delhi Parents’ Association is also calling for stricter regulations for schools not built on DDA land. “These rules apply only to schools on DDA land, but out of around 2,000 private schools in Delhi, only 300 are on DDA land. What about the others?” asked Gautam.
“In May, the Delhi High Court stayed a DoE circular that prevented unaided private schools on government-allotted land from raising fees without prior approval. Where can parents turn to for help now?” she added.
In many states, parents’ associations have been demanding laws for years.
For instance, Venkath Sainath of the Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association said parents there have been fighting a legal battle for a decade to establish a district fee regulatory committee in the state. “In 2017, the state government formed a committee to recommend fee regulations. While this committee submitted a report with various recommendations, it was never made public or implemented,” Sainath told ThePrint.
“Now, the current government is claiming it will form another committee, but what about the recommendations from the 2017 committee? There is a strong and unified demand for a regulatory framework that guarantees education remains accessible and equitable for all families,” he added.
In some states, parents have been demanding changes in existing laws.
Dilip Singh Vishwakarma, president of the Maharashtra State Parents’ Association, said while the state implemented a fee regulation act in 2011, it had significant “loopholes”.
The Act allows schools to increase fees by up to 15 percent every other year, but in reality, schools often raise fees annually under various categories.
Dilip Singh Vishwakarma, President, Maharashtra State Parents’ Association
“Many schools in Maharashtra also require parents to purchase uniforms and branded shoes exclusively from them. As a result, we have been advocating for amendments to the act for several years,” he added.
What do private school associations say
Private school associations maintain that they only raise fees to comply with state regulations and to keep pace with inflation. “Tuition fees are essential for paying faculty salaries, which rise with each Pay Commission and according to the state’s CPI (consumer price index),” said Bharat Arora, president of the action committee of Unaided Private Recognised Schools, an umbrella organisation representing over 400 schools in Delhi.
Arora added that schools had to improve their infrastructure in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. “Schools require funds for ongoing infrastructure improvements, sports facilities, smart classrooms, and maintaining safety protocols, including the installation of CCTVs,” he told ThePrint.
Adding, “Schools now need to build skill labs and implement other new facilities like the use of technology and AI in almost all subjects.”
Kulbhushan Sharma, president of the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA), said the high cost of schools in Gurugram and other big cities was largely because of exorbitant land prices.
According to him, a school needs a minimum of 100 acres which can cost upwards of Rs 100 crore with no discounts available for educational institutions.
Previously, land for schools was often provided as charity, but that practice has changed. Furthermore, teacher salaries must be adjusted according to the CPI, adding to operational expenses.
Kulbhushan Sharma, President, NISA
In addition, substantial investments of around Rs 20-30 crore are needed for infrastructure.
High education costs don’t end with primary school. College and university tuition at private institutions has also surged dramatically in recent years.
For instance, O.P. Jindal Global University charges Rs 6.25 lakh annually for a five-year LLM course while Ashoka University’s undergraduate courses cost Rs 10 lakh a year.
The Post Graduate Programme in Management for Senior Executives (PGPMAX) course at Hyderabad’s Indian School of Business (ISB) costs over Rs 40 lakh.
It’s hardly surprising then that parents are worried.
“These days, parenting seems to revolve entirely around children’s education. My son is in Class 9, and I’m already mapping out plans for his undergraduate and Master’s studies,” said Rachna Tripathi, a parent from Noida. “He aspires to pursue computer engineering, but if he doesn’t secure a merit seat in a government college, we’ll have to consider a private institution, which costs at least Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh, not including living expenses.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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