Sridhar Vembu further said that – "A lot of corruption money from politics is 'parked' in real estate and that has inflated prices beyond normal market forces. In a sense, all of us pay for political corruption in the form of expensive housing, schools and health care."
In a post over social media platform X, the Zoho CEO referred to a post on X, which showed the term-wise split of the amount to be paid to a school, in addition to a registration fee and an annual fee.
According to the X user's post, which Sridhar Vembu referred as an example for his point, he had to pay Rs 10,000 as a non-refundable registration fee, an annual fee of Rs 25,000 that was recurring and Rs 98,750 each for four three-month terms, between April 2024 and March 2025.
"We are investing in school education to make it affordable (our schools are free) but we can only do it in deep rural areas where land is affordable," added Vembu in the X post.
Notably, the cost of education in India has increased substantially. Between 2012 and 2020, education costs rose by about 10-12% annually. This includes tuition fees, transportation, and examination fees.
The rising cost of real estate in urban areas drives up the expenses for educational institutions. Schools and colleges often pass these costs onto students through higher tuition fees.
Corruption and speculative investments in real estate can inflate property prices, indirectly affecting the cost of education. This creates a cycle where high real estate prices lead to higher educational costs, making quality education less accessible.
Public expenditure on education has remained relatively stable, around 3.9% of GDP in 2018-19. However, private expenditure has grown faster, reflecting the increasing privatization of education. Together, public and private spending on education accounted for 6.6% of GDP in 2018-19.
Although, the education budget has seen periodic increases. For instance, the 2024 budget allocated ₹1.48 lakh crore to education, with significant increases for school education and literacy. Despite these efforts, affordability remains a challenge for many families, especially with the rising costs. And, Zoho founder, Sridhar Vembu, despite being a billionaire raise this issue to bring it in open.
While there are several government schemes aimed at making education more affordable, the implementation and reach of these programs can be inconsistent, limiting their effectiveness.
Addressing these barriers requires a multifaceted approach, including increased public investment, better implementation of government schemes, and efforts to reduce the cost of private education.
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