Reports & Papers
Equity, Access, and Quality: Leveraging Low-Fee Private Schools for Outcome-Focused Education in Karnataka
December 29, 2025
Bridging the Learning Gap in Andhra Pradesh: Exploring the Role and Potential of Low-Fee Private Schools in Enhancing Educational Outcomes
December 29, 2025Low fee private schools in Kerala : Regulation, Access and Quality
Low-fee private schools (LFPS) in Kerala provide an affordable alternative to government schools, serving predominantly lower- and lower-middle-income families. Monthly fees range from ₹400 to ₹3,500, making these schools accessible to daily wage-earning households. Over the past two decades, LFPS have expanded steadily, reflecting parental demand for English-medium, nationally affiliated education, even as overall school-age populations decline.
Despite their growing role, LFPS face multiple challenges that constrain their ability to deliver quality education. Regulatory requirements are often cumbersome and costly, with annual renewals, multiple NOCs, and compliance with detailed infrastructure and procedural norms consuming significant time and resources. Many rules are overly prescriptive, limiting flexibility and innovation, while minor procedural lapses can trigger penalties or derecognition, creating uncertainty and undermining school autonomy. At the same time, LFPS frequently lack access to targeted capacity-building, mentorship, and professional development opportunities for teachers, limiting their ability to improve instructional quality and learning outcomes. These challenges highlight the need for policy reforms and supportive interventions that enable LFPS to operate efficiently, innovate, and sustainably improve the quality of education they provide.
Key recommendations include:
- Simplify regulations by removing overly prescriptive norms from law to guidelines while retaining essential safety and quality norms.
- Independent quality assessment: Establish a state-level accreditation body to evaluate LFPS based on learning outcomes and publicly share results to enhance transparency.
- Capacity-building and mentorship: Pair LFPS with high-performing government schools, provide teacher training, and adopt participatory, child-centred pedagogical approaches.
- Support innovation and EdTech adoption: Subsidise electricity, affordable internet, and digital devices; train teachers in blended learning; reward schools that improve outcomes through innovative practices.
- Extend temporary recognition validity to 5+ years, rationalise NOC timelines, enable self-declaration for safety compliance, and implement a single-window digital clearance system.
This paper analyses the role of low-fee private schools in Kerala’s school education system, situating their growth within changing demographic trends and persistent parental demand for affordable English-medium education. It critically examines how input-heavy regulation, procedural compliance, and limited institutional support constrain the capacity of LFPS to focus on teaching quality and learning outcomes. Drawing on these findings, the paper advances a set of policy recommendations aimed at recalibrating the regulatory framework towards outcome-oriented oversight, institutional autonomy, and systematic capacity-building. By proposing regulatory simplification, independent quality assessment, and targeted support for pedagogical innovation, the paper seeks to inform a more balanced approach to governing private schools that safeguards minimum standards while enabling LFPS to contribute meaningfully to equitable and quality education in Kerala school education.
Nissy Solomon is an Hon. Trustee (Research & Projects), Dr D Dhanuraj is the Founder-Chairman and Afiya Biju is a former Research Assistant, at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), Kochi, India.
Views expressed by the authors are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.
