Skyrocketing private school fees biting hard into wallets of TN parents

Delhi schools have been in the news, with parents protesting against arbitrary fee hikes, and the state government bringing in a Bill to regulate the fees in private and government schools.

The Delhi School Education Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees Bill, 2025, could offer some hope down South, where the rising cost of education in private schools is hitting parents in Tamil Nadu hard.

While state board private schools in Tamil Nadu are charging anywhere from Rs 5,000 to Rs 70,000 a year for the coming academic year, CBSE/ICSE private schools are charging Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh. The rate varies according to the grade (kindergarten to Class 12) and district.

Exorbitant rates

"I recently admitted my daughter to a private CBSE school close to home and paid an exorbitant fee of Rs 1.5 lakh for pre-kindergarten," Vetrivel V, a resident of Chetpet, in Chennai, told The Federal. "We finalised on the school after going through the fee structure of multiple schools."

"The fee is about Rs 1 lakh for LKG and about Rs 80,000 for UKG. There are additional costs for taking the students on excursions — Rs 3,500-5,000 per visit. They also charge a fee of Rs 3,000 for graduation ceremony dresses," he added.

Parents say they agree to pay such high fees because they feel it would fetch their children the best education. There is also societal pressure to contend with. The schools justify the high cost by flaunting tech-rich teaching methods, smart classes, tracking systems and app-based reporting on student activities.

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Disproportionate levels

"We paid Rs 1.3 lakh for my son's admission to kindergarten. My undergrad fee was less than that," recalled Chandni Surana, another Chennai resident.

So what made her choose the costly option? "They promised to teach my son basic development skills for everyday life, besides regular education," she told The Federal. "The school also gives us an app through which they update us on our child's activities with pictures. There are field trips to supermarkets so that the children understand shopping basics."

"Despite all these tech-savvy processes, we parents feel it's basically a loot," she rued. "Since we want the best for the children and there is societal pressure to ensure that our children get the best education, we give in. Even the children sometimes question the choice of school," Surana added.

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Regulatory measures

The Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 brings in some checks and balances. It allows the state to regulate the fees collected by private schools in the state.

The Act facilitated the establishment of a Fee Determination Committee to fix the fee structures for all private schools, including CBSE and ICSE affiliated schools. However, in 2016, the ICSE/ISC and CBSE schools were exempted.

The Supreme Court issued interim orders limiting the committee's role in these schools. While the committee can now verify if the fees are commensurate with facilities, it cannot fix the fee structure for CBSE/ICSE schools.

Exemption given

"The CBSE and ICSE schools were given exemption because each school has a different infrastructure and the fees can be charged accordingly. After the interim orders were passed, the fee is being increased almost every year in these schools," S Arumainathan, president of the Tamil Nadu Students Parents Welfare Association, told The Federal.

"The parents are not in a position to file a case independently in the Supreme Court again to appeal for fee regulation," he added. "The government should intervene and the committee should be able to take charge of regulating the fees of all private schools, irrespective of which board they are affiliated with."

Where state board private schools are concerned, the Act allows them to file an application proposing a new fee structure at the beginning of an academic year. The previous year would be the base year. The schools would need to disclose the expenditures incurred during the previous academic year, supported by documents.

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'Parents have no voice'

For CBSE/ICSE schools, the committee can still enquire into excess fee collection charges. But, it can only issue an advisory if there are any violations when it comes to CBSE/ICSE schools.

"The parents do not really have a voice because they fear if they complain, will the school allow the student to continue," educationist Prince Gajendra Babu told The Federal. "The schools had appealed in the Supreme Court and asked for an interim order to get exemption for the CBSE and ICSE/ISC schools but the boards need to advise the affiliated schools to follow a specific fee structure.

"Besides Tamil Nadu, there are other states where schools have appealed to the Supreme Court and gained exemption from being regulated by the private School fee determination committee," .

He added that even the fees fixed by the committee for private state board schools is also increased every three years. Over the past eight years, the fee structure has surged from the range of Rs 3,500 to Rs 40,000 in 2017-18 for all classes to Rs 6,000 to Rs 65,000 in 2025-26.

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Every school submits an application proposing the fee structure long after the previous academic year is over. The Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee Act,) 2009 says that any order passed by the committee determining the fee payable is declared to be final and binding on the private school for three academic years.

Add-on fees

Gajendra Babu added that the school is allowed to appeal but the parents have no say. "The parents should be given an opportunity to object but there is no such system. We need an amendment to allow parents to object to the fees structure and also let the private schools fees determination committee to also fix the fees for CBSE and ICSE/ISC schools," he said.

The schools are charging additional fees every year in the name of overall infrastructure development and the introduction of new teaching methods. Activists have questioned this, too.

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"If there is an infrastructure development, the collection of the money cannot be done until the end of life of the school building. For example, smart devices might last about five years but why does each student pay for this for those five years?" questioned Gajendra Babu.

"There are certain facilities that are brought in for a specific set of students but the fee is added for all the students. We need to ensure that the students are charged only for facilities they use," he added.

Meanwhile, responding to the issue on the Delhi Draft Bill, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, said, "We have the GO from 2009 which stipulates the fee structure for schools. It was done by a committee headed by the retired judge. I am once again stating that any schools which violate this fee structure, we will take severe action against them.”