Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said fee hike by private schools will be capped at 5 per cent per annum, saying it will provide long-awaited relief to lakhs of families across the state. He said a law will be introduced in the next assembly session, saying it will be the country's toughest law against arbitrary fee hikes by private schools and will apply to all private schools across Punjab. Significantly, the 5 per cent ceiling will cover not only tuition fees but all mandatory charges and funds collected by schools, closing avenues that institutions have often used to burden parents with additional costs.
Stating that the unchecked fee hikes were enabled by amendments introduced by the previous Congress government in 2019, Mann asserted that the new law would restore accountability in the education sector, protect parents from exploitation, and permanently end the harassment of children and families over school fees. Addressing the media here, Mann said private schools will not be allowed to increase their fees by more than 5 per cent per annum. He said after the tragic incident in Amritsar, he received many calls from parents regarding arbitrary fee hikes by private schools.
A 17-year-old student in Amritsar allegedly committed suicide recently after facing mental harassment by her school over pending dues. Mann said the student lost her life to the system or school mafia, stating that she was pressurised to pay an arbitrary fee. "The Punjab government has decided that fee hike by private schools will be capped at 5 per cent per annum. They can raise fee only by 5 per cent in a year," Mann said.
The chief minister clarified that it will apply to all kinds of fees, not just tuition. He said schools that raised fees by over 15 per cent in the past three years must refund the fee component charged above the 15 per cent increase. He informed reporters that a strict law will be brought in this regard and asserted that it will be the toughest law in the country. Mann said the fee structure of private unaided schools is currently governed by the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act, 2016, which was amended in 2019.
However, he noted that successive governments failed to implement the law effectively, allowing schools to impose excessive fee hikes on parents. The 2019 amendment allowed schools to increase fees beyond the prescribed limit through a disclosure mechanism, which required schools to publicly display proposed fee hikes on notice boards, school websites, and the website of the Department of School Education before admissions commenced. "Though the law mandated transparency regarding fee increases, these provisions were rarely implemented in practice. As a result, parents continued to face unjustified and excessive fee burdens," he added.
All pending complaints related to fee hikes would now be examined and acted upon. "A regulatory body will keep a close watch on excessive fee hikes. It will ensure that any increase in fees is justified by actual expenditure or developmental activities and does not result in profiteering. It will also ensure that funds collected from students are not diverted for any other purpose. In cases of serious violations, schools can face penalties, withdrawal of recognition or affiliation, and orders to refund excess fees collected from students," he said.
Schools found violating the law face a graded penalty system. For a first violation, fines can range from Rs 30,000 for primary schools to Rs 1 lakh for senior secondary schools. Repeat violations attract higher penalties, ranging from Rs 60,000 to Rs 2 lakh. In cases of a third violation, authorities may withdraw a school's recognition or affiliation in addition to imposing financial penalties. The Regulatory Body also has the power to order the refund of excess fees collected from parents.
The Punjab government is also examining mechanisms for financial audits of private schools. One proposal under consideration involves empanelling Chartered Accountants to review schools' financial records from the previous three to five years, including fee collections, expenditure, salaries, infrastructure investments, reserves and related-party transactions, according to an official statement. Such audits would help determine whether fee hikes were genuinely justified and whether collected funds were utilised for educational purposes, it said.