Making of Inda - Poor Dad - Poor Child.

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• Education is rapidly becoming unaffordable and exclusionary
  Rising costs, from ₹1,000+ textbooks to ₹8,000+ annual book sets, along with high fees and add-ons, are turning education into a financial burden. Government schools are shrinking while private schools now account for nearly half of enrolment. Education is shifting from a public right to a market commodity. 

• A structural two-tier system is taking hold
  A clear divide has emerged, underfunded government schools for the masses, expensive private and international-board schools for the elite. Cost disparities are extreme, with government education costing a fraction of private schooling. The growing presence of foreign boards is deepening a one-way intellectual dependency, not a balanced exchange. 

• Policy is accelerating elite capture and foreign entry
  Post-NEP 2020, foreign universities and branded schools are entering India, targeting a narrow, affluent segment. With only a small fraction able to afford ₹10–12 lakh annual fees, the system is creating a “status trap” for aspirational families. Public education weakens, private expands, foreign institutions occupy the top, the middle collapses. 

• Long-term consequences point to inequality and instability
  Restricted access to education will widen inequality, stall social mobility, and weaken economic productivity. A less educated population becomes easier to influence politically. Historical parallels, including colonial-era policies under Thomas Babington Macaulay, show that elite-focused education systems create dependency, not national strength. If this trajectory continues, India risks converting its demographic advantage into structural instability.

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MARCH 2026

Education in India is being systematically made unaffordable, and this is not drift but direction.

Immediate Situation, Pricing Out the Classroom

A Class 5 English textbook priced at ₹1,035, with a full set exceeding ₹8,000 in institutions such as the Cambridge section of City Montessori School in Lucknow, is not an anomaly, it is a signal.

Private schools across urban India have normalised bundled textbook prescriptions, often tied to specific publishers, eliminating price competition and parental choice.

Fees, transport, uniforms, and “activity” charges compound the burden.

“When a textbook costs more than a week’s wages, education has already begun to exclude

This is a structural shift from public provisioning to private extraction.

Government schools, once the backbone of mass education, are shrinking in both perception and capacity.

In states such as Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, thousands of government schools have either been merged, rationalised, or effectively shut due to low enrolment and policy consolidation drives over the past decade.

The result is not efficiency, it is displacement.

At the same time, private schools have expanded aggressively.

India now has over 4 lakh private schools, accounting for nearly half of total school enrolment.

The migration is not voluntary, it is forced by declining trust in government school public education.

The outcome is immediate and measurable.

Education is no longer a right delivered by the state, it is a commodity rationed by income. This is the trigger, and it is already reshaping access.

Structural Vulnerability, A Two-Tier System Hardens

The Indian education system is now bifurcated into two tracks, one for the masses, one for the market.

Government schools operate with minimal resources, outdated teaching, and declining enrolment. Private schools, particularly those affiliated with international boards such as Cambridge, IB, and others, operate at a premium inaccessible to most citizens.

This is reinforced by cost asymmetry.

“A system that divides early in childhood will control outcomes permanently

Government school textbooks, often produced by NCERT or state boards, cost a few hundred rupees annually. Private school book sets routinely exceed ₹5,000 to ₹15,000 per year. The difference is not marginal, it is exclusionary.

Tax policy adds another layer.

While education is nominally exempt, essential inputs such as stationery have historically attracted GST rates up to 18%.

The signal is clear; the ecosystem of learning is not treated as a protected public good.

Simultaneously, foreign educational frameworks and brands are being imported. Cambridge and other international boards are expanding within India, often positioned as superior alternatives.

On the contrary, Indian boards and universities are not exported with similar institutional backing or diplomatic push to those countries. Therefore, it is not mutual exchange of education but a one-way intellectual dependency.

Consequently, Indian education system vulnerability is structural.

A nation that outsources its standards while hollowing out its public base creates a permanent social hierarchy of knowledge and opportunity.

This is not a temporary distortion; it is an engineered divide.

Escalation Logic, From Access to Control

Policy decisions are now reinforcing a predictable chain reaction. The National Education Policy 2020 opened the door for foreign universities to establish campuses in India.

By 2026, institutions such as the University of York, University of Southampton, University of Bristol, University of Surrey and others are setting up operations.

“Control the channel of knowledge, and you control the direction of society

Here are the prominent Indian schools currently using foreign brand names:

British "Heritage" Brand Collaborations

These are some of the most prestigious names in UK education that have opened campuses in India via local partnerships.

• Harrow International School (Bengaluru): * Partner: Amity Education Group.

• Wellington College International (Pune): * Partner: Unison Group.

• Shrewsbury International School (Bhopal): * Partner: Jagran Social Welfare Society.

• Bedford School (Mohali): * Partner: Doon International Education Society.

American & European Brand Collaborations

While British brands dominate the K-12 space, American and European brands are also expanding:

• American Eduglobal Schools (Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Jaipur): * Partner: Edovu Ventures in collaboration with Rutgers Preparatory School (USA).

• Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) - Junior Wings:

The economics are explicit. Fees at these campuses are expected to be around 50% of their UK equivalents, still placing them far above the reach of the median Indian household.

Estimates suggest only very small number say 10 – 20 Lakh (1 to 2 million) students can afford programmes priced above Rs 10-12 lakhs (£10,000) annually. This is a narrow, elite segment.

Meanwhile, India produces approximately 11 million school graduates each year, with 15 to 17 Lakh (1.5 to 1.7 million) in the top academic bracket. Elite Indian institutions absorb only about 200,000 of them.

The gap is not just large, it is systemic.

Foreign universities are not entering to democratise access to education, they are entering to capture this untapped premium demand. Indian parents are now tied to ‘Status Trap’.

Their expansion is calibrated, targeting high-employability sectors such as business, management, and engineering.

“Indian parents are now tied to ‘Status Trap’.

The escalation is linear, because this way public education weakens, private domestic institutions expand, easily foreign institutions enter at the top end, and the middle collapses.

Over time, this produces a population segmented not just by income, but by cognitive access and institutional exposure.

This is how dependency deepens. A country that cannot educate its majority at scale will inevitably centralise influence among those who can afford education.

The rest will follow, not lead.

Consequences, From Inequality to Instability

The consequences extend beyond classrooms.

Education determines employability, income mobility, and civic awareness. When access is restricted, the effects cascade.

“When education narrows, inequality hardens into destiny

First, economic inequality will widen. High-cost education funnels opportunities into a narrow band, while the majority remain trapped in low-skill, low-wage cycles.

India’s demographic dividend will convert into a demographic burden.

Second, social mobility will stall. Education has historically been the primary ladder out of poverty. If that ladder is priced out, generational stagnation becomes inevitable.

Third, political consequences will follow. A less educated population is easier to mobilise, easier to polarise, and harder to organise around long-term policy interests.

This is not incidental. Systems that limit access to knowledge often produce more predictable political outcomes.

Fourth, national capability will erode. Innovation, research, and institutional depth depend on broad-based education. A narrow elite cannot sustain a complex economy of 140 crore (1.4 billion) people.

Historical parallels are instructive.

Colonial education policies in many parts of the world created small administrative elites while leaving the majority uneducated, ensuring control without empowerment.

India risks recreating a colonial education trap where a narrow, expensive system produces compliant elites but leaves the nation economically hollow.

Under Thomas Babington Macaulay, the British did not design education to empower India, they designed it to manage India.

The objective was precise, create a class of intermediaries who would think like the rulers but remain rooted enough to administer the ruled.

English-medium education became the gateway to opportunity, while indigenous systems, local knowledge, and mass literacy were systematically neglected.

The result was not accidental inefficiency; it was deliberate structuring.

The numbers reveal the depth of that design.

Literacy in India remained below 20% at independence. Education spending was minimal. Technical and industrial training, the backbone of any self-sustaining economy, was almost entirely absent.

What emerged instead was a thin layer of educated elites suited for clerical and administrative roles, disconnected from production, innovation, and grassroots economic activity.

This created a structural imbalance. The system produced functionaries, not builders.

It generated dependency on British imperial government,

Similarly, pre-reform systems in several developing economies produced rigid class divides through restricted access to quality education.

These models delivered stability in the short term, but stagnation in the long term.

India is approaching a similar inflection point.

If current trends continue, education will cease to be a public equaliser and will become a private filter.

The result will not remain confined to schools or universities. 

It will reshape the economy, 

distort democracy, and 

harden inequality into a 

permanent structure.