Days after the Punjab government promulgated an ordinance for regulating school fees in private schools in the state, the National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA) and Recognised Affiliated Schools Association (RASA), Punjab, on Tuesday strongly opposed the move to cap the annual fee increase of private schools at 5% and require schools to refund any fee collected beyond the prescribed limit during the past three years.
Event Context
Addressing a press conference here, NISA president Kulbhushan Sharma and RASA chairman Harpal Singh said the decision, if implemented in its present form, could adversely affect the financial sustainability of private schools and, consequently, the overall school education ecosystem in Punjab. “If the issue is not resolved by the state government, we will have no option but to knock on the doors of the high court for appropriate legal intervention,” they said. Punjab has around 9,000 private schools with a combined student enrolment of nearly 30.63 lakh. Under the earlier prevailing policy, private schools were legally permitted to increase fees by up to 8% annually. The state government amended the Punjab Regulation of Fees of Unaided Educational Institutions Act, 2016 to impose a 5% cap on annual fee hikes following the death of a girl student by suicide allegedly due to pressure from her school over pending dues.
Team Analysis
Sharma urged the Punjab government to initiate a comprehensive dialogue with private school associations, parent representatives, educationists and financial experts to evolve a balanced, transparent and scientifically designed fee regulation policy that protects the interests of all stakeholders while preserving educational excellence. He said a balanced education policy was the need of the hour and quality education cannot be ensured through fee control alone. “While safeguarding the interests of parents is important, it is equally essential to ensure the financial sustainability of schools, dignified salaries for teachers and quality education for students,” the NISA president said.
The RASA said the fee cap and retrospective refund provision would severely impact the functioning of private schools, which have made financial commitments based on the existing legal framework that permitted annual fee revisions of up to 8%. He said that schools had invested substantially in teachers’ salaries, staff recruitment, infrastructure, laboratories, smart classrooms, digital learning, safety systems and sports facilities. Any retrospective financial burden would weaken schools’ ability to maintain educational standards, he added.
Match Outlook
Both Sharma and Harpal further stated that schools were still recovering from the financial impact of the Covid pandemic, as many institutions had taken loans to sustain operations during that period and continue to face repayment obligations. They warned that forcing schools to make retrospective fee refunds could prove particularly devastating for low-fee and budget private schools. Such institutions, already operating on thin margins, could face severe implications and lose the financial and administrative capacity to accommodate over 30 lakh students and recruit nearly 150,000 teachers if the private schools were weakened.
No rethink, says CM
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann said there was no rethink by the state government on capping fee hikes in private schools. “We will not roll back the changes made in the law,” he said in response to a query, alleging that private schools had turned education into a business. The state government is expected to introduce a bill in the upcoming monsoon session to replace the ordinance.
