The school fee hike has been a prominent issue in Hyderabad for quite some time, where the average fee structure for schools ranges around Rs 3 lakh or Rs 4 lakh annually.
Hyderabad: Parents have staged sporadic protests at several privately-run schools in Telangana against a hike in fees by up to 60 per cent. Many parents feel the hikes were announced to frustrate the state government’s plans to regulate school fees through the proposed Telangana Education Commission (TEC).
Recently, 70 parents gathered outside a private school at Vanasthalipuram to question the steep increases and demand clearer justification.
Similar hikes have been reported at other institutions, like a missionary school in Secunderabad and another prominent private school in Bowenpally. These sudden increases have left parents struggling to manage the additional financial burden. All these schools have hiked fees by 50-60 per cent, which is a steep jump from its usual 10 per cent hike.
Venkat Sainath of the Hyderabad School Parents Association, said, "Every year, the standard increase is around 10 per cent, but now the schools are doubling fees. They assume they can raise it to any level before the TEC Act comes into effect. We plan to submit our concerns to the director of school education by the end of this week."
The school fee hike has been a prominent issue in Hyderabad for quite some time, where the average fee structure for schools ranges around Rs 3 lakh or Rs 4 lakh annually. Following this, TEC submitted a draft bill on January 24, titled "Telangana Private Unaided School Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Draft Bill, 2025."
This draft proposes the establishment of a statutory commission to oversee and regulate school fees, which will potentially limit annual fee hikes to 10 per cent. A cabinet sub-committee, established in July 2024, is scheduled to review the proposals this week, while the government might consider the draft’s implementation in the upcoming Assembly in March 2025.
Akunuri Murali, the chairman of TEC, warned that the current hikes would prove unsustainable once a statutory law comes into force. "Once the law is implemented, whatever they hike will not stand and they will have to come down," he stated.
He explained that nearly 60 per cent of a private school’s revenue is spent on teachers’ salaries which suggests that the only acceptable measure for fee increases might be one tied to the Consumer Price Index. His comments hint at a future where unchecked increases will be curtailed by legal measures.
Another aspect of the draft bill is the categorisation of schools based on factors such as location, infrastructure, and quality of teaching. This classification will set an upper fee limit for each category which will balance affordability for parents with the maintenance of educational standards.
The parents argue that there was no transparency or justification for these sudden fee hikes. Some institutions have faced backlash for not ratifying the increases with any regulatory body. The issue extends beyond schools, as intermediate and college fees have also surged without oversight. Sainath noted, "There’s no mechanism to regulate college fees either. The Telangana Fee Regulation Committee exists, but it isn’t acting against arbitrary fee hikes."
