Excess fee charged by School of Eminence: Minister Bains assures action

3 min readJalandharJul 16, 2026 01:59 PM IST

Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Wednesday assured action against those responsible for the alleged collection of unauthorised fees at the School of Eminence (SoE) in Nawanshahr after the issue was raised during his visit to Raja Sahib Da Mazara near Banga.

The controversy first came to light in April after parents alleged that students seeking admission to Class XI were asked to pay around Rs 5,000 despite the notified annual fee for government schools being about Rs 876. Several parents claimed they paid the amount fearing their children would lose admission.

The matter was flagged by AAP’s district in-charge for the Nasha Mukti Morcha, Dinesh Suri, MLA Dr SK Sukhi and mediapersons. During the interaction, Bains reportedly said the school’s principal should be suspended. Sukhi, however, reminded the minister that he had raised the issue in the Assembly earlier, but no action had followed.

The controversy surfaced after allegations that the government-run school was charging students far more than the fee prescribed by the Education Department. Principal Sarabjit Singh had reportedly admitted to collecting additional charges with the approval of the School Management Committee (SMC), claiming the money was used to address staff shortages and support academic activities beyond the regular curriculum.

The issue snowballed into a political controversy, with opposition leaders questioning the AAP government’s flagship ‘Sikhiya Kranti’ initiative. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhdeep Singh Sukkar and Jamhuri Adhikar Sabha activist Jasbir Deep alleged that the government could not claim to provide quality education at nominal cost while allowing a government school to charge fees beyond the notified rates.

They also asked why the Punjab government’s recently promulgated ordinance regulating fee and fund hikes in unaided private schools had not been enforced with similar rigour in Schools of Eminence. While private schools have been directed to submit records and refund excess fees, they alleged that no comparable action has been initiated against officials of the government-run school. The two leaders demanded that the government first refund the allegedly excess amount collected from parents at the School of Eminence and fix accountability before enforcing similar provisions against private schools. They also questioned the authority of the School Management Committee to alter the fee structure notified by the Education Department and sought clarity on whether additional collections for staff shortages and competitions such as the National Science Seminar and the International Mathematics Olympiad were legally permissible.