The Gujarat Government’s quick passing of legislation to regulate private school tuition fees has the entire K-12 education sector in a ferment, and the threat of prolonged litigation is in the air. Over 2,000 schools, through their representative bodies, are set to go to court. 

Under the Gujarat Self-financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, passed by the state legislative assembly on March 30, all private primary, secondary and higher secondary schools including schools affiliated with CISCE, CBSE, international and state boards, are subject to tuition fee ceilings — Rs.15,000 per year for primaries, Rs.25,000 for secondaries, and Rs.27,000 for higher secondaries. 

According to education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, the private schools’ response is exaggerated because between 85-90 percent of private schools levy tuition fees below the ceilings fixed by the government. The remainder will need to justify higher fees to four zonal Fee Regulation Committees (FRCs) comprising retired court judges and civil servants appointed by the state government. 

Quite clearly, the tuition fee ceilings imposed on private schools are much too low — Rs.1,250 per month for primaries and Rs.2,250 for higher secondaries. These ceilings will compel all Gujarat top-ranked schools included in the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2017-18 (see p.122) to put their cases before the Fee Regulation Committees. 

“The fee ceilings imposed are totally unrealistic and have been set by someone who has no idea of the actual cost of delivering globally benchmarked K-12 education. That apart, they constitute a gross infringement of the autonomy of private schools, and appeals to the FRCs impose an unnecessary administrative burden upon us,” says Kiran Bir Sethi, the celebrated promoter-director of the CIE (UK)-affiliated Riverside School, Ahmedabad, routinely ranked Gujarat’s #1 international day school.

Gujarat Congress spokesperson Dr. Manish Doshi describes it as a half-baked, half-hearted measure which has already backfired because a large number of the 16,000 private primary schools in the state were charging annual fees of Rs.8,000-9,000. “But the government has fixed base fees at Rs.15,000 which has prompted a large number of private schools to raise their tuition fees. The state legislative assembly election is due this year and the BJP government has introduced this populist legislation to win the middle class vote,” says Doshi. 

Little wonder that the Act has prompted over 2,000 private schools and/or their representative associations to challenge it in the Gujarat high court. Among those challenging the Act is the Schools Welfare Federation (SWF), an umbrella body of 50 CBSE-affiliated schools across Gujarat. SWF has challenged the Act on the ground that schools affiliated with the Delhi-based CBSE and national exam boards are per se beyond the jurisdiction of the state government. 

According to Bijal H. Chhatrapati, partner of J. Sagar and Associates, a firm of advocates and solicitors representing the federation, numerous other associations as well as individual schools representing 2,000 plaintiffs have challenged the Act. In Chhatrapati’s opinion, the judgement of a full bench of the Supreme Court in T.M.A. Pai vs. State of Karnataka (2002) permits every private education institution full autonomy to administer itself and levy reasonable fees subject to not charging capitation fees and ensuring merit-based admissions.

“Reasonable fees are permitted to ensure maintenance of proper academic standards and infrastructure. On the other hand, the singular intent of the Act is to impose tuition fee ceilings. Private schools use their own funds for maintenance and do not take grants from the state government. They provide high quality education and therefore have a right to charge fees in keeping with the quality of education and facilities provided,” says Chhatrapati. 

The Schools Welfare Federation’s writ petition also alleges that the state government doesn’t allocate enough funds for the education sector and has failed to provide quality education in its own schools which lack even basic infrastructure. The petitions have been bunched together and are currently being heard by a Gujarat high court bench headed by Chief Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice V.M. Pancholi.

R. K. Mishra (Gandhinagar)