Education costs soar in Indian Cities: Private schools 9X costlier, coaching piles on, shows NSS survey

Government schools remain the backbone of rural education, accounting for two-thirds (66%) of all enrolments outside urban areas. In cities, however, enrolment is more skewed towards private institutions, with government schools catering to only 30.1% of students

Indian households spend nearly nine times more on educating a child in a private school compared to a government school, according to the latest Comprehensive Education Survey (CMS: E) conducted as part of the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS).

The survey, which covered 52,085 households and 57,742 students across the country using computer-assisted interviews, examined household expenditure on school education. It found that while government schools continue to dominate India’s education system with 55.9% of total enrolments, the average annual household expenditure per student in these schools was just Rs 2,863. By contrast, families spent an average of Rs 25,002 on students in non-government institutions.

Government schools remain the backbone of rural education, accounting for two-thirds (66%) of all enrolments outside urban areas. In cities, however, enrolment is more skewed towards private institutions, with government schools catering to only 30.1% of students. Private unaided schools alone account for 31.9% of enrolments nationwide.

A large share of this spending is driven by course fees, which remain the single biggest expense. At the all-India level, households spent an average of Rs 7,111 on fees per student during the current academic year, followed by Rs 2,002 on textbooks and stationery. Urban households consistently reported higher costs across categories: the average fee in cities stood at ₹15,143, nearly four times the rural average of Rs 3,979.

The reliance on private coaching emerged as another striking trend. Nearly 27% of students reported taking coaching classes during the current academic year — 30.7% in urban areas and 25.5% in rural areas. Spending on coaching rose sharply with the level of education, from Rs 525 annually at the pre-primary stage to Rs 6,384 at the higher secondary level. Urban households spent substantially more, with average annual costs of Rs 9,950 at the higher secondary stage compared to Rs 4,548 in rural India.

When asked about funding, 95% of students across India said their education was primarily financed by other household members. Government scholarships were reported as the first major funding source by only 1.2% of students.

The report also flagged key caveats. The last comprehensive NSS education survey was conducted in 2017–18, but its findings are not directly comparable. At the time, anganwadi centres were not classified as pre-primary institutions, and coaching costs were included in school expenditure. In contrast, the CMS: E survey treated anganwadis as part of pre-primary education and recorded coaching expenses separately.

Officials stressed that while the survey provides reliable national-level estimates, state-level data should be interpreted cautiously due to sample size limitations and relative standard error. The totals derived from the survey are meant to generate ratios and averages, not serve as absolute population counts, and extrapolating them directly could be misleading.