Widening gap between pvt & govt edu institutes cause for concern in Haryana

As the nursery admission season is going to start after a couple of months, there will be a rush to enroll in private schools across Haryana. Parents who couldn’t secure seats through the lottery draw for admissions to these schools will make a beeline for recommendations from bureaucrats or politicians.

There will be few takers for government schools despite free textbooks, uniforms, mid-day meals, and better-paid teachers. Even those from lower-middle-class backgrounds often prefer private schools, citing the quality of English education, better facilities and academic results. Branding and advertising are also reasons why parents get swayed.

The recent Comprehensive Modular Survey: Education, 2025, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) on August 26, revealed that the average spending per student on school education in Haryana during an academic year is Rs 25,720, ranking second only to Chandigarh in the country, and is more than double the national average. It is higher because of exorbitant fees in private schools in the state, particularly those in the NCR. The average expenditure per student in a private school in the state is Rs 48,636 per annum. It is 11 times the cost of education in a government school (Rs 4,479).

This comparison is essential to study because there are more students in private schools in the state than in government schools. The higher cost of education in private schools makes them unaffordable for the poor. Haryana has 23,494 schools, including 14,338 government ones, four government-aided, 8,499 private schools, and 653 schools in other categories. Enrollment in government schools has been decreasing over the years. It dropped to 22 lakh in 2024-25, from 22.30 lakh in 2023-24 and 24.64 lakh in 2022-23. Meanwhile, private schools’ enrollment has risen from 32.83 lakh in 2023-24 to 34.84 lakh in 2024-25.

There are some pertinent questions -- why parents have more faith in private schools? Are state government schools equipped to prepare students for the future, and can they can make students employable?

The answer is in the Ministry of Education’s Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) Plus report for 2024-25, which reveals a lack of digital infrastructure in Haryana’s government schools. More than 30 per cent of government schools in the state lack Internet facilities. In contrast, 94.5 per cent of private schools report having Internet access. Additionally, only 42.6 per cent of government schools have functional smart classrooms, compared to 63.9 per cent in private schools.

“Even in Haryana villages, people want their children to study in private schools. Earlier, they used to send their kids by school bus to nearby towns or cities, but now private schools are opening up in villages. Some government schools are also good, but their number is few. There is stigma attached to government schools, hospitals and universities. Perception matters to people,” said Dr Vishal, who hails from Bhiwani and works as Assistant Professor, Economics Department, Central University of Jammu.

There's a huge difference between private and government universities also. The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2025, released on September 4, lists only two private universities from Haryana in the top-100 list of universities across India. In the 2024 edition of the NIRF, too, the state public universities were nowhere to be found in the list of top-100 varsities.

For the sixth consecutive edition of the rankings, none of the private or public higher education institutions from the state could find a place in the ‘overall’ category of the NIRF, which is a cause for concern.

The state public universities have consistently complained about a lack of recruitment and funding. The fewer the regular teachers, the less the research. Overall, it results in poor rankings. In comparison, some private universities in the state have foreign faculty too.

Where does the buck stop?

The expenditure on education, both school and higher education, as per budget estimates for 2023-24, was 10.97 per cent of the total spending. It marginally fell to 10.94 per cent in 2024-25, and further to 10.39 per cent in 2025-26.

On March 26, Education Minister Mahipal Dhanda had admitted in the Vidhan Sabha that state government schools were short of at least 11,475 rooms, including 6,848 classrooms and 4,627 other rooms, while the vacancy rate among Post Graduate Teachers (PGTs) was 22.6 per cent.

“Funding for public universities is the key. It impacts recruitment and further teaching, as contractual teachers at low wages had to be employed. The government wants universities to generate funds on their own by taking the excuse that they are autonomous institutions, which is not possible. At one point in time, funding to state public universities was termed as long-term loans (later, the government had to issue a clarification),” said Prof Mahabir Jaglan, who retired from the Geography Department of Kurukshetra University. He added, “A few private universities are really good, but most of them, particularly in Haryana, are just distributing degrees.”