Regulating school fee

AFFORDABLE and quality education for all — that’s a key goal of the National Education Policy, 2020. A big roadblock on this ambitious path is the economic exploitation of parents by many private schools that are solely or primarily driven by the profit motive. The lack of adequate checks and balances has fuelled rampant commercialisation in the education sector. In a welcome move, the Delhi Cabinet has approved a Bill to regulate fee in all schools in the national capital, prescribing fines up to Rs 10 lakh for any hike without proper approval. The Bill, likely to be tabled in the Assembly soon, proposes the formation of committees at the school, district and state levels. These panels will examine fee hike proposals by school managements in a transparent and time-bound manner. The objective is to protect hapless parents from arbitrary decisions that reek of sheer extortion — a take-it-or-leave-it scenario in which the school authorities hold all the aces.

Several states, including Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, have their own legislation to regulate the fee structure of schools. However, state governments have repeatedly found themselves embroiled in court battles over this matter. In 2021, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Rajasthan Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2016, confirming the state’s right to prevent profiteering in education. Recent protests by aggrieved parents have prompted the BJP government in Delhi to come up with a regulatory Bill.

The legislation has tried to incorporate clear-cut enforcement provisions so as to minimise disputes between educational institutions and governments. Private schools often justify fee hike on the grounds of providing better facilities to students and higher salaries to teachers. However, most of them are reluctant to disclose details of income and expenditure. Such opacity leaves parents ill-informed and makes them more vulnerable to being milked dry. It is hoped that robust legal safeguards will deter schools from treating education as a cash cow.

Editorials