The new academic year has not begun on a happy note for a legion of parents in Tamil Nadu. Apart from having to cope with the menace of the high retail inflation that has drilled a hole in household budgets, parents are now facing the brunt of increased school fees. Some schools have arbitrarily increased fees by as much as 30–50 percent or more, claiming that their operational costs have gone up several folds.
Are private schools free to increase the fees at will? Tamil Nadu follows a fee-fixing model and has set up a TN Private Schools Fee Determination Committee, as suggested by the Supreme Court in 2009. Under the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fees) Act, 2009, the panel is empowered to verify and approve fee structures proposed by private schools. Each school is supposed to submit the fee hike proposal, accompanied by their books of accounts and other claims. The committee’s job is to ensure that the school management’s move is not leading to profiteering and to approve the proposal or suggest an alternative after verifying the documents.
Over the years, the state government has faced a series of court battles on school education. In 2012, a division bench of the Madras High Court ruled in favour of the state government that CBSE schools would come under the purview of the fee committee. However, private CBSE-affiliated schools later managed to get an interim order from the Supreme Court, which allowed them to fix fees on their own. For the past several years, the state government has not challenged the order.
In the last decade, Tamil Nadu has seen a steep increase in the number of CBSE schools. The number has gone up from 390 in 2013, including those run by the central government, to 1,617 in 2024. Of late, the state has witnessed a flood of complaints from parents about fee hikes. The fee committee has made it clear that it has no mandate to fix the fees of the CBSE-affiliated schools unless the stay is lifted by the court. State governments, aggrieved parents, or their associations should approach the Supreme Court on the matter. A fee-fixing model for all private schools should bring some semblance of reconciliation between parents and school managements.