Raising serious concerns over the state of India’s public education system, Rajya Sabha MP and Padma Shri awardee Rajinder Gupta used the Zero Hour to call for urgent, mission-mode reforms to restore trust, dignity and equity in government schools across the country.

With the permission of the Chairman, Gupta began his intervention by invoking Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s warning that political democracy cannot endure without social democracy, which in turn rests on common and equal education. Referring to the Economic Survey 2025–26 tabled recently, he noted that while India operates one of the world’s largest schooling systems with nearly 1.5 million schools catering to about 25 crore students with the support of over one crore teachers and the outcomes remain deeply uneven.

The Survey, he pointed out, reveals that 54 per cent of schools offer only foundational and preparatory education, while just 17 per cent provide secondary education in rural India, highlighting a sharp drop in access and learning opportunities beyond the elementary level. Gupta also made a candid observation that even policymakers and officials often choose not to send their own children to government schools, calling it a “painful reflection of the erosion of trust in our public institutions.”

Drawing attention to the growing financial burden on families, the Rajya Sabha MP said private school fees are rising at an annual rate of 10–15 per cent, forcing many households into debt, while the coaching industry has expanded into an estimated ₹58,000 crore market. This, he argued, underscores the deepening inequality in access to quality education.

While welcoming Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s decision to increase the education budget by 8.2 per cent to a record ₹1.39 lakh crore in 2026–27, Gupta noted that overall public expenditure on education continues to remain below the 6 per cent of GDP target recommended under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

He urged the government to strengthen public education in a focused, mission-driven manner, restore excellence and credibility to government schools, and ensure that every child, irrespective of background, begins life on an equal educational footing.

In a key proposal, Gupta called for the creation of a National School Fee Council, on the lines of the GST Council, to serve as a supreme federal body where the Centre and states could jointly evolve equitable and transparent school fee norms, while accommodating regional variations.

“The future of our democracy depends on the foundation we lay in our classrooms today,” he said, pressing for consensus-driven reforms to make quality education accessible and affordable for all.