Coaching classes, private schools are increasing education expenses in India – in six charts

Indian families are increasingly spending on private coaching out of school to improve children’s learning outcomes. Nearly two in five students in secondary school are enrolled in some coaching classes, up from under a quarter in primary school, according to the Comprehensive Modular Survey on Education 2025, conducted across 52,085 households between April and June 2025.

In addition, about 38% of students are enrolled in private schools, where overall household expenditure per student, on average, is 10 times that in government schools. Taken together, families with school-going children spend between 5% and 10% of their monthly expenditure on education and related costs, our analysis shows. Spending patterns vary across social groups.

“When we say that parents are not paying any fee under the Right to Education [RTE Act], we need to understand that there is a lot of ‘opportunity cost’ of education that parents pay,” said Kishore Darak, a senior educationist working in the sector for close to three decades. “For example, a child going to school may require her mother to stay at home as a caregiver to younger siblings. In that case, she loses her daily wages, adding to the opportunity cost the parents must bear.”

In six charts, we analyse household spending on school education.

Pre-primary costs

The survey asked...

Read more