Escalating Fees Row

Despite several decisive victories for autonomy — T.M.A. Pai vs. Union of India (2002) and Inamdar’s Case (2005) — in the Supreme Court, private independent education institutions are experiencing incremental pressure from the Central and state governments — and a subsidies-addicted middle class — for government ‘regulation’ (reduction) of their tuition fees. This time round, the pressure is for regulation of the fees of private unaided (i.e, independent) K-12 schools.

- Autar Nehru

Given the power and influence of the country’s 200 million strong middle class — despite new millennium Supreme Court liberal judgements freeing private education institutions from government shackles — the regulation of fees levied by private independent schools has become a hot potato political issue with state governments countrywide imposing tuition fees regulation mechanisms.

In a milestone verdict on December 27, the Gujarat high court affirmed the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017 which imposes annual tuition fee ceilings on primary (Rs.15,000), secondary (Rs.25,000) and higher secondary (Rs.27,000) schools statewide, regardless of exam board affiliation. 

In Delhi, a state government directorate of education’s circular of October 17 permitting schools to hike tuition fees to meet the obligations of paying teachers arrears and enhanced salaries awarded by the Seventh Pay Commission, has stirred a hornet’s nest. It permitted a fee increase of 7.5 percent retrospectively from January 1, 2016 to June 2017 and 15 percent thereafter.