Hyderabad: With school fee regulation still on hold in Telangana, parents are faced with yet another sharp hike for the 2026-27 academic year – 30% for all new admissions. This upward revision, parents say, has already kicked in many schools that have started their admission process this month. “I wanted to enrol my son in one of the top schools in the city but was surprised to see it is charging over Rs 3 lakh for LKG. The fee was about Rs 2.5 lakh last year,” said Shruthi M from Begumpet. She claimed that the school is not even allowing parents to see the campus before they fill out the application form online by paying the prescribed fees. Shruthi mentioned that she is looking at schools in and around Begumpet and Secunderabad, and almost all better-known schools in these localities are charging exorbitant fees even at the entry level. The average here: Rs 1.5 lakh.Another parent, Bharat R, living in Uppal, said, “Last year, we enrolled my brother’s son in LKG in a well-known school and paid about Rs 70,000 as annual fee. Now, when I went to enquire for my daughter, the fee is close to Rs 1 lakh.” 15% for existing studentsParents alleged that some schools have hiked their fee — by over 15% — even for existing students. “My daughter’s fee is set to increase by 22% in the new academic year. I fail to understand why schools are revising the fee so sharply every year when there is barely any change in infrastructure or the quality of education they provide,” said Kranthi Krishna. She will now have to pay almost Rs 3 lakh per annum for her child in class 8. ‘Limited to a handful’School managements argue that this is only limited to a handful of schools. “Only top schools, which have very high demand, are able to revise their fee by such a huge percentage. But sadly, all of us are having to share the blame. I feel, the govt should bring in some regulations by implementing the Tirupati Rao committee’s recommendations,” said KV Praveen Raju from the Independent School Managements Association, which has several top schools in the state as its members. Members of the Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association (HSPA) confirmed that they received several complaints from parents about this fee hike in Nov. “It’s been two years since the new govt came to power. But apart from saying that education is its priority, it has done nothing. Parents are tired of fighting for fee regulation,” K Venkat Sainath, Organising Secretary, HSPA. “Even this year, many schools have increased fees by over 40% for new admissions. There’s an at least 20% annual hike for existing students,” he reiterated. The body urged the govt to take a call on the matter urgently. “Else, parents will have to suffer for another year as deadlines in most schools are either the end of Nov or end of Dec for pre-primary admissions,” Sainath said.Regulation by JanThe Telangana Education Commission (TEC) officials also admitted to being aware of the issue and said that they have received complaints from several parents. “We are pushing the govt to bring in fee regulation at the earliest i.e by Jan,” said PL Vishweswer Rao, member, TEC.
