“Two lakhs a year for LKG,” exclaims Viren, a young father from Hyderabad. “I cannot imagine what a four-year-old is learning that could cost that much.” Millions of Indian families share Viren’s sentiment. Education has always carried weight in India, but today it also carries a hefty price tag. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s (MoSPI) 2025 education survey found that households spend an average of ₹25,002 per student in private schools, compared to ₹2,863 in government schools.
Education today is often spoken about in the language of economics, with a vocabulary built around investment, access, return, and growth. “A large part of school fees has become a subscription fee for networking,” Viren adds. “Educational institutions have become places for building connections.”
Families feel education inflation through multiple ripples: a fee notice, a bus charge, a lab bill, an exam fee, a coaching class, uniforms, a ‘development’ fee, and the constant pressure to keep up. The government’s education survey for 2025 and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) series show that this pressure is real. While India’s general inflation has remained around 4% to 6% in recent years, education costs for many families have risen by an estimated 8% to 15% annually, particularly in private schooling, coaching, and higher education.
The official Consumer Price Index (CPI) education inflation rate rose from 2.38% in January 2021 to 4.37% by June 2025, meaning the rate of education inflation nearly doubled over five years. Parent groups argue that even this understates the true burden, since the index includes lower-cost government schools and does not fully capture expenses such as coaching centres, transport, and digital learning.
“India is a welfare-driven country with schemes and support systems for people below a certain income threshold. But once you move outside that bracket, education becomes extremely expensive. The best thing the government can do for the middle class is regulate fees,” Viren believes.
A nationwide LocalCircles survey in 2026 found that 70% of parents reported private school fee increases of more than 30% over the previous three years, with many reporting hikes between 50% and 80%. The survey also pointed to a widening gap between fee regulation on paper and enforcement in practice. Parent groups and activists say this gap lies at the centre of the issue.
“Quality does not match the price. There is no audit to show where the money is going, no checks and balances in place,” says Advocate Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, President of the India Wide Parents Association. In her view, the problem is less about the absence of laws and more about weak implementation. Supreme Court rulings and state-level regulations prohibit profiteering in education and allow only a “reasonable surplus”, yet oversight mechanisms remain inconsistent.
With oversight remaining inconsistent, disputes over school practices and fee structures have continued to grow. In one recent case, a school in Uttar Pradesh allegedly forced parents to purchase books from designated vendors, prompting the India Wide Parents Association to file a petition before the National Human Rights Commission.
“Parents are often left with no real choice. If they question schools, there is always fear that their children may be targeted or isolated. But this kind of carrot-and-stick pressure cannot become the status quo,” adds Anubha. Following the complaint, notices were reportedly issued to the Ministry of Education and Uttar Pradesh education authorities seeking responses and further action.
Parents describe education as one of the few expenses on which families feel they cannot compromise, even while cutting back elsewhere. Viren envisions a future where more families move toward homeschooling or alternative learning systems, driven by growing disillusionment with conventional schooling models. “Somewhere in the middle of all this inflation and economic growth, education has started feeling more transactional than meaningful,” he concludes.