A Jaipur man’s viral post on skyrocketing school fees seems to have hit a nerve with thousands of parents. In his now-viral post, Rishabh Jain said that a good school in the city is charging well over ₹4 lakh as annual fee for a Class 1 student. The high fee is not an isolated instance but representative of other good schools in the capital of Rajasthan, he said.
Rishabh Jain explained he was looking to enrol his daughter in a school when he was struck by the high cost of education. In his angry post on X, the IIT Bombay-educated entrepreneur said that good education has become a luxury that the middle class can ill afford.
Jaipur man’s post on high school fee
Jaipur-based Jain shared his take on India’s unaffordable education in an X post that has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. “My daughter will start Grade 1 next year, and this is the fee structure of one of the schools we are considering in our city. Note that other good schools also have similar fees,” he wrote, sharing a breakdown of the fee structure where parents would have to pay ₹4.27 lakh over the course of a year to get their child educated.
The IITian claimed that even people earning ₹20 lakh per annum could not afford such a high fee, as much of their salary would go into taxes and other necessities like food and clothing.
“At 20L income you fall in the highest 30% + CESS tax bracket, do not qualify for government schemes, and do not receive any freebies or loan waivers like rich. In the remaining ₹10L, Either you can have food, clothes, pay rent or EMIs, and save something or you can pay school fees for your two kids,” said Jain.
Parents react
The post divided opinion on social media as many parents agreed with Jain and called the skyrocketing cost of education “outrageous.” Others, however, felt that he had exaggerated in saying that people earning ₹20 lakh could not afford to pay ₹4 lakh as annual school fees.
“Bro it feels like you are exaggerating the numbers! And also purposefully you have picked the costliest school in your city to make this tweet!” wrote one X user, which Jain countered by saying: “It may feel like I am exaggerating, trust me I am not. Get married & settle in a big city to find for yourself.”
“I always tell people that they need to count the money they spend for good education as part of taxes, since in most high tax countries once you pay taxes it covers quality education and sometimes healthcare too,” another X user said.
