Reshma Ravishanker

High fee structures of private unaided schools across the country have sparked deliberation among parents on social media whether two lakhs have become the new normal for the fee of a nursery student.

Free structures of private unaided schools have been posed across various platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

For instance, the fee of a Hyderabad-based ICSE affiliated school went viral on a parents’ group on Facebook has it that the school has quoted a total fee of Rs 2.51 lakh for admission into nursery school. In the breakup of this structure, the tuition fee is only Rs 47,750. Parents must cough up a caution deposit of Rs 1 lakh.

Similarly, parents in Bengaluru also posted a fee structure which was close to the above. An international school off Bannerghatta Road is charging an annual fee of Rs 5.45 lakh per student for Grade 5. Among this is mentioned a breakup of “pocket money” of Rs 25,000 and “laundry charges” of Rs.15,000.

“Schools nowadays have become a profit-making business. They are no longer a social entity. They fleece parents yet pay peanuts to teachers. The management is only bothered about making money and flaunting opulent infrastructure on their brochures,” said Anirban (name changed), a parent from Hyderabad.

“As much as we understand that premier private schools have best in class infrastructure and facilities, what justifies the payment of a fee between Rs 2-6 lakh for a nursery student? The school would recover all its investment made in the next five years. As a parent who has admitted my child to a school where the fee is RS 1.2 lakh per year, I am facing social stigma. There is an assumption that quality of education is directly correlated to the amount of fee a parent is capable of depositing,” rued Medha, a parent from Bengaluru.   

The fee of yet another Bengaluru school posted on X (formerly Twitter), had it that the school was charging a fee of Rs 1.9 lakh for nursery which parents could pay in two installments only.  

Meanwhile, in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party accused the ruling BJP of colluding with private schools’ “mafia” to permit unregulated fee hikes at private schools. The Delhi government is now considering a new mechanism to regulate fee hikes for all private schools.

Sayilee, a patent from Mumbai also rationale behind fee hikes. “Presently, an average employee has been getting a 10-15% hike annually. However, school fees are jacked up by 20% every year. How must parents catch up with inflation? It is not just school fees but also prices of commodities that rise by the year,” remarked the mother.

Also read: WB: Cabinet nod to set up commission to regulate private school fees