3. BACKGROUND
The issue of hike/anomaly/irregularity in school fees was bought to light when the
Education Ministry of India admitted that they have been receiving copious
amounts of complaints from parents and guardians alike regarding the unholy
amount of money being demanded by private school authorities.
A survey conducted by RBI officials revealed that a college degree from
Lucknow could be as costly as one from Princeton.
Education loan saw a hike of 15% from 2003 to 2009.
Common findings confirm that schools are getting more privatised and
government institutes are falling behind which is in turn creating problems for
most middle class families to afford decent education.
4.
5. GOVERNMENTS SOLUTION :-
RIGHT TO EDUCATION ACT, 2009
REGULATION OF COLLECTION OF FEE ACT, 2009 [State government of
Tamil Nadu]
REGULATION OF COLLECTION OF FEE ACT, 2011 [State government of
Maharashtra]
RAJASTHAN SCHOOL (REGULATION OF FEE) BILL,2016
REGULATION OF COLLECTION OF FEE ACT, 2017 [State government of
Gujarat]
THE KARNATAKA EDUCATION ACT,2017
6. Reduce the cost of education.
Protect the disadvantaged sections of the society from being exploited.
Provide easy access to all.
Increase literacy rate of India.
Maintain an image of welfare state economy.
Create a nation wide wave about importance of education and literacy.
Increase human capital of the nation.
Reducing the grievances of parents against the high fees charged by private
institutions in India.
7. School authorities who see no chances of increasing prices will have budget cuts.
Private School authorities are unable to function efficiently, lose incentive to perform better.
Quality of education is deteriorating.
Creates entry barrier in the market, hence creating scarcity.
Existing schools will have to shut down because they cant meet running costs or due to lack of
demand of failing quality.
8. While consumers are always seeking lower costs in any economy, the problem of the welfare
state is in its attempts to help poor, it reduces costs at the expense of the producers.
While this artificial reduction in price may be seen as a positive impact by the consumers in the
short term, but in the long run results maybe disastrous for them as well as the quality of
education would deteriorate with the reduction in school fees.
There exists numerous instances in history where the control of prices led to problems for the
consumers that were actually supposed to help the consumers.
Also, Why should the government — which has been unable to provide high quality education
in its own schools — have the right to regulate those schools which are more successful at
providing it?
9. Pvt Schools have argued that such attempts would lower the standards of
education by forcing the schools to cut costs.
After all — it is argued — what would be the incentive of running a private
enterprise, if no profit could be made?
Educational institutions should be allowed to make ‘reasonable surplus’.
This surplus should be used for the growth and better facilities of said institution
and finally, that this surplus could not be used for profiteering by the school
management.
Also , Not only should audit of all private schools be mandatory, but
their accounts and fee structures should be put in the public domain.
