School education in India runs with the help of both private and government schools. More than 24.69 crore children of the country study in schools and more than one-third of these children study in private schools. Now the continuously increasing fees of private schools is very disturbing. Despite all the prevention, the fees of these schools are so high that a large section of the country’s population cannot afford to educate their children in these schools. The fees of many schools are many times higher than the per capita income of India. Lakhs of people living in metros are able to send their children to school only when the number of earning people in their family is more than one.
The report of Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2024-25 shows that out of 24.69 crore children in the country, 9.58 crore children i.e. about 39 percent study in private schools only. The effect of this is that every year thousands of new private schools are opening from villages to cities. The fees of these schools are definitely increasing. Money is also charged in addition to the fees for various reasons. Recently, the fee structure of many schools went viral on social media, about which there is a lot of discussion.
How expensive are schools?
According to the list that recently went viral on social media, the tuition fee for nursery children in Prometheus School was only Rs 1,17,000 per year. Apart from this, school bus money and many other expenses are charged separately. In another school, Pathways School, Noida, the annual fees for children of class 1 to 8 for the year 2026-27 is Rs 912000. Apart from this, admission fee of Rs 2 lakh, registration fee of Rs 35 thousand, transport fee, learning support of Rs 1.75 lakh and English support of Rs 1.45 lakh will have to be paid separately. Some of these fees are optional i.e. if you do not avail these facilities then you will not have to pay these fees.
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Similarly, the annual fee for nursery at Step by Step School is Rs 4.71 lakh, the annual fee for Shiv Nadar School is Rs 4.47 lakh and the annual fee for The Shri Ram Millennium School is approximately Rs 2.3 lakh. If we calculate the average monthly fees of these schools, it comes to around Rs 10 to 30 thousand per month. It is obvious that if the fees are so expensive then the facilities are also of the same kind. Good rooms, good seats and other facilities are also available in the school. However, our question here is basically about the availability of education and its accessibility to every person.
If we compare this average fee with the per capita income in India, then it becomes clear that people’s income is less than this fee. According to the Economic Survey of the year 2025-26, the annual income of every person in India in the year 2024-25 was Rs 205324. It is estimated to be Rs 219575 in 2025-26. Now if we look at this month, the per capita income is around Rs 18 thousand.
Expensive schools are not a guarantee of good education
Despite paying fees worth lakhs in these schools, children are not getting good education. Neither are children given adequate attention nor do their educational development take place as expected. According to the data of the National Sample Survey in 2025, 4 out of 10 i.e. 40 percent children in Delhi also take tuition after school. At the national level, 27 percent children also take tuitions apart from schools. As children progress, their dependence on coaching increases. Preparation for exams like IIT-JEE and NEET is completely dependent on coaching.
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Children studying in private schools are also dependent on expensive coaching institutes and to get a good rank, they have to study hard for hours apart from school and coaching. This shows that even though school fees may be very expensive and coaching institutes may be expensive, they are by no means a guarantee of good education.
Every year there is increase in fees
Expensive fees also do not remain permanent. Every year this fee increases tremendously. There have been cases of increase of 20 to 35 percent in many schools. According to a survey by LocalCircles, 44 percent parents believed that school fees increased by 50 to 80 percent between 2022 and 2025. Only 13 percent parents said that there was no increase in fees.
Regarding the year 2025-26, 81 percent parents believed that there was an increase of about 10 percent. At the same time, 22 percent parents agreed that school fees have increased by about 30 percent. At the same time, people’s salaries increased by only 9 to 10 percent on an average. This means that not only did one have to pay more money in school, the savings at home also reduced.
How many people are being deprived of education?
Understand this with an example. The per capita income in Delhi is Rs 5.31 lakh annually. At the same time, if we look at the estimates of private agencies, there is a large population in Delhi-NCR whose annual income ranges from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. A large part of this population earns from salary and spends on EMI. If the monthly income of a family is Rs 2 lakh, then the EMI of its house or flat can be 30 to 50 thousand rupees per month, EMI of car can be 15 to 25 thousand rupees, other expenses can be around 25 to 30 thousand rupees per month.
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If such families take the help of househelp, then every month you spend 4 to 5 thousand rupees. Now if there is even one child in this family, then 25 to 30 thousand rupees have to be spent per month to send him to these schools. If there are more than one child in a family, it becomes difficult to send them to school, educate them and manage other expenses.
Why is there such a problem?
India spends only about 4 percent of its GDP on education, which is much less than other developed countries. Countries with bigger economies than India spend 6 to 7 percent of their GDP on education. Due to low expenditure, the government school education system in India is very weak. There are good schools in India like Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalaya and Sainik School but the number of those schools is very less in comparison to the number of children studying.
It is from here that the business of private players starts to fill the need that arises and packaging of education is done. By showing the greed of good buildings, better presentation and many other activities other than studies, these private schools increase their fees to lakhs. Salary class people living in metro cities are forced to send their children to these schools for ‘good education’ and they have no other way to pay the loan amount.
How much do people of India earn?
Out of about 8 crore people who filed ITR in the year 2023-24, there were about 4 crore people whose annual income was less than Rs 5 lakh. There were 1.28 crore people whose annual income was between Rs 5 to 10 lakh and 50 lakh people whose annual income was between Rs 10 to 15 lakh. This shows that even ITR filing families cannot afford to send their children to expensive schools. If someone’s family has more than one child and they live in metro cities, then it is far from possible for them to send all the children to these expensive schools.
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Since the last census was held in the year 2021, the latest data on the income of the people of India is not available. In such a situation, we will have to rely only on the survey data of many private institutions. According to Azim Premji University’s ‘The Distribution of Household Income, 2019-2024’, in the year 2023-24, the poorest 10 percent of people in India were able to earn only Rs 1059 a month. At the same time, the average income of the richest 10 percent people was only Rs 20,380. This report shows that between 2019 and 2024, the income of almost every income group increased by only 6 to 10 percent.
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