Rajya Sabha member Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Wednesday called for urgent and time-bound rationalisation of school fees across the country, warning that arbitrary and non-transparent fee structures in private schools are pushing middle-class parents into severe financial distress.
Referring to the reply given by minister of state for education Jayant Choudhry in the Rajya Sabha on his question regarding regulation of fees in private educational institutions, he said that that while education is in the concurrent list and fee regulation has been left to state governments, there was still no uniform national framework to check excessive and recurring charges such as annual fees, readmission fees and hidden levies beyond tuition fees. He said that pre-nursery playschools were charging exorbitant fees unaffordable for a large section of society, according to a release.
Sahney stated that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, guarantees free education to every child between 6 and 14 years and mandates that private unaided schools reserve at least 25% seats at the entry level for children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, with a clear prohibition on capitation fee. “Recent studies and judicial observations show that this promise is not being fulfilled on the ground: a recent survey-based NITI Aayog study has found that many private schools are not filling the full 25% quota, parents remain unaware of their rights, and procedural hurdles and delayed reimbursements are denying thousands of eligible children their lawful seats,” he added. He also said that the Supreme Court directed all states and union territories in 2026 to frame binding rules to enforce the 25% RTE quota in private schools.