Context

• Education is a constitutionally guaranteed right in India. Article 21A ensures free and compulsory education for children aged six to 14, while the NEP 2020 extends this vision to cover ages three to 18.
• Despite these commitments, schooling continues to impose a substantial financial burden on families, as shown by recent national data.
• Therefore, it is important to analyse enrolment patterns, educational expenditure, and the growth of private coaching to assess the widening gap between constitutional promises and the reality faced by households.

Enrolment Patterns: The Growing Shift to Private Schools

• Government schools still enrol 55.9% of students nationally, yet private unaided schools account for a significant 31.9% of enrolments.
• This shift is far more prominent in urban areas, where 51.4% of students attend private institutions compared to 24.3% in rural regions.
• The gender gap remains small, with 34% of boys and 29.5% of girls enrolled in private schools.
• Across all levels of schooling, urban private enrolment is consistently higher, reaching 62.9% at the pre-primary stage and declining to 42.3% at higher secondary.
• Compared with previous NSS data, private school enrolment has risen across both rural and urban India, particularly at the primary and middle levels.
• This upward trend reflects increasing parental preference for private institutions, driven by perceptions of better quality.

Educational Expenditure: The Financial Burden on Households

• Despite official guarantees of free education, many government school students still incur costs. 25.3% of rural and 34.7% of urban government school students report paying course fees.
• In private schools, the figure is almost universal, with around 98% of students paying fees.
• The fee gap between government and private schools is stark. In rural government schools, annual fees range from ₹823 to ₹7,308, while in rural private schools they range from ₹17,988 to ₹33,567.
• Urban households face even higher private school fees, from ₹26,188 at pre-primary to ₹49,075 at higher secondary.
• When converted into monthly terms, private schooling represents a heavy burden: rural families spend ₹1,499–₹2,797 per month, while urban families spend ₹2,182–₹4,089.
• These costs align with the monthly consumption of the poorest 5% to the third income decile, indicating that private schooling consumes a disproportionate share of household budgets.
• This challenges the notion that basic education in India is effectively free.

Private Coaching: An Additional Layer of Inequality

• Private coaching has become widespread, with 25.5% of rural and 30.7% of urban students relying on it.
• The proportion rises sharply at higher levels of education, reaching 36.7% in rural and 40.2% in urban secondary schooling.
• Coaching costs add another burden. Urban students spend an average of ₹13,026 annually on tuition, almost double the rural average of ₹7,066. At the higher secondary stage, expenditures rise to ₹22,394 in urban and ₹13,803 in rural
• The demand for coaching is driven by higher household income, better parental education, and urban residence.
• It is particularly common among students in private schools, where teachers are often underpaid and underqualified, compelling families to seek external academic support.
• Coaching has also become a symbol of academic prestige, deepening inequalities between socio-economic groups.

Implications for Equity and the Public Education System

• The rise in private schooling and coaching has significant implications for educational equity.
• Families with limited means face difficult choices, often stretching their finances to provide what they perceive as better educational opportunities.
• Declining enrolment in government schools further weakens these institutions by reducing demand and resource support.
• Private coaching amplifies learning disparities. Students from wealthier households gain academic advantages that poorer students cannot afford, widening long-term socio-economic gaps.
• Strengthening public school quality is therefore critical to reducing reliance on both private schools and tutoring.

The Path Forward: Strengthening Publicly Funded Schools

• Achieving the NEP 2020 vision of universal and equitable education requires a revitalised public education system.
• Improved infrastructure, better-trained teachers, and strengthened classroom processes can help rebuild public confidence.
• High-quality government schools would reduce the need for costly private schooling and limit dependence on coaching.
• Research links school quality directly to reduced reliance on private tuition, indicating that systemic improvements in government schools can create more equal learning conditions for all students.
• Investment in teacher development, foundational learning, and early education is essential for inclusive progress.

Conclusion

• Schooling in India remains financially demanding, despite constitutional guarantees of free education.
• Rising private school enrolment, high fees, and the normalisation of private coaching impose heavy burdens on households and reinforce educational inequality.
• Strengthening public schools is essential to ensuring that education remains a right rather than a privilege, and to creating a system that is both equitable and accessible for all children.