Sonal Jain, a homemaker, pays Rs 65,000 as annual fees for her son, who studies in junior KG. Any hike in her child’s school fee will force the 31-year-old to make drastic adjustments in her monthly budget.

With school fees now dictating home budgets, more and more parents are keen to have a say in how private schools decide their fees.

“I have to think twice if I want to send my child for extra curricular activities. People can’t think of having a second child because good education is now a luxury,” Jain rued.

Schools claim higher fees are imperative to raise standards of education.

The government, in an effort to balance the scales, appointed a 21-member committee in June to fix norms for schools to hike fees. Ironically, the committee had only three parents on board pitted against 14 representatives of school managements.

The parent members claimed that the committee’s final report was not shown to them and alleged that 90 per cent of their suggestions were ignored.

“The government is using the parents in the committee,” said Raju Tirmalle (42), parent of a school-going child.

“If parents rebel against the state’s order in future, they will claim that the decision was made in the presence of our representatives. What can we say then?” asked the Dadar computer consultant.

The government has now invited public opinion on the committee’s report, which is available on the state government website www. maharashtra. gov. in