A screenshot of a leading Bengaluru school’s fee structure has gone viral on social media, sparking widespread debate over the rising costs of private education in India. Shared on X, the document shows an annual tuition fee of Rs 7.35 lakh for Grade 1 students, increasing to Rs 11 lakh for Grades 11 and 12. These amounts do not cover extra expenses such as transportation, books, uniforms, or extracurricular activities, which can easily push the total annual cost for a single child beyond Rs 8 lakh.
“It’s a free market. Pricing is up to individuals. It’s the customer’s choice to pick what they want. All is right in this theory, like most of the theories. Look at the fee structure of one of the good schools in Bengaluru. This is unaffordable even for an IT couple earning a combined pretax income of Rs 50 lakhs per annum and having two school-going children. India is a land of extremes,” financial planner D Muthukrishnan wrote on X, along with a screenshot of the fee structure for the 2025–26 academic year.
The post has left many parents reeling, as it highlights the growing inaccessibility of quality schooling even for middle- and upper-middle-class families. However, others argued that education is a free market, and parents can choose institutions according to their means.
One user commented, “Sir…this school is meant for ultra-rich family kids, it’s quite normal that all families want their kids to be in their equivalent class. As a middle-class person, I don’t want my kids to study in govt school because of the poor environment. It’s parents’ choice.”
Another wrote, “Of course, if IT people get a 50 thousand salary, why not staff and teachers. But in reality, most of the money goes to management, which involves different aspects. I suggest one thing, let all the people stop admission and send their children to government school for 2 years, automatically, private schools will become haunted houses. The public itself is corrupt.”
A third said, “These are schools for the rich. In Mumbai, there are many good and affordable schools. So it all depends on the individual.”
Earlier, a Reddit user’s post had also highlighted the steep school fees in Bengaluru. The user revealed that the yearly pre-nursery class fee for a toddler could cost approximately Rs 1.85 lakh, according to the estimate provided by one of the schools. The estimate included a registration fee of Rs 5,000 as well as consumables amounting to Rs 28,240, split into two instalments. The fee for the June to November period was quoted as Rs 91,200, with the remaining sum being Rs 60,800.
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