Govt to regulate fee structure in private schools
Bill to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly next month
Hyderabad: The state government is likely to introduce a bill to monitor and regulate the fee in private schools in the Assembly in March, according to sources. A Cabinet sub-committee led by IT minister D. Sridhar Babu is vetting the proposals out forth by the Telangana education commission.
Among the key proposals are categorising private schools into five categories, setting up a commission to regulate fee in private unaided schools. The panel will be headed by a retired judge and will include academics, professors, chartered accountants, and school management representatives. It has recommended enacting a law to regulate the fee, instead of issuing government orders.
The commission has proposed the creation of district-wise collector-headed fee regulatory committees.
The proposal to introduce the Telangana Private Unaided School Fee Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Bill, 2025, follows a series of discussions and deliberations, with the Cabinet sub-committee.
The TEC, headed by retired IAS officer Akunuri Murali, submitted its comprehensive report to the state government on January 24. The report includes several recommendations for regulating the fee structure in private schools.
The Cabinet sub-committee is expected to hold a series of meetings this month, where it will review the commission's findings. The new law is intended to take effect for the academic year 2025-26, beginning in June.
This move to regulate private school fees is a major step by the Congress government, as previous efforts in both the undivided Andhra Pradesh and post-bifurcation Telangana have failed to withstand legal scrutiny.
In 2009, the Y.S. Rajasekara Reddy government in the undivided Andhra Pradesh introduced Government Order (GO) 91, aimed at regulating fees in private schools, but it faced legal challenges, particularly from private schools affiliated with CBSE and ICSE. These GOs were eventually struck down by the courts.
Another attempt was made by the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government, when a committee chaired by former Osmania University vice-chancellor Prof. T. Tirupati Rao was formed in 2017 to suggest measures to regulate school fees. Its report, submitted in December 2017, recommended the creation of a school fee regulation committee to oversee fee hikes. The BRS government failed to act on these recommendations.
On coming to power, the Revanth Reddy government reconstituted a cabinet sub-committee on education reforms in July 2024. Headed by Sridhar Babu it will address the issue of private school fee regulation. The government established the Telangana Education Commission in September 2024, which is tasked with exploring options for regulating school fees and making recommendations to the government.