Punjab caps private school fee hikes at 5%, regularises 516 forest department workers

The Punjab government on Monday announced a series of measures spanning education and public employment, including a new ordinance to regulate fees charged by private unaided schools and the regularisation of 516 daily wage workers in the forest department.

Fee regulation ordinance targets private schools

Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann said the Punjab Regulation of Fees of Unaided Educational Institutions (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026 has come into force after receiving the Governor's approval. The ordinance caps annual fee increases by private unaided schools at 5%, with any increase beyond that requiring prior approval from the designated regulatory authority.

The government has also directed all private schools to upload details of fees collected during the past four years on a designated portal within 10 days. Schools found to have increased fees by more than 15% over the last three years will be required to refund the excess amount collected from parents, Mann said.

According to the Chief Minister, the ordinance covers all charges collected from parents, including transportation, building funds and other miscellaneous fees, treating them as part of tuition fees for regulatory purposes. The move is intended to prevent schools from levying additional charges outside the regulated fee structure.

District-level regulatory committees headed by deputy commissioners will scrutinise proposals for fee revisions and oversee implementation of the ordinance. Mann also said the government would conduct forensic audits to determine the actual fees collected by private institutions through various heads.

The ordinance prescribes a graded penalty structure for violations, including a fine of ₹50,000 for the first offence, ₹1 lakh for the second and derecognition in case of repeated violations.

Punjab has around 7,800 private schools with more than 32 lakh students enrolled. The government said the ordinance seeks to improve transparency in fee collection and reduce the financial burden on families.

Forest workers regularised, promotions restored

Separately, the Punjab government regularised the services of 516 daily wage workers in the forest department and restored long-pending promotions of 237 officers and employees.

Appointment letters were distributed to the workers during a programme in Chandigarh. Mann said the employees regularised under the state's 2023 policy would receive service security until the age of 58 years, along with a transparent salary structure and annual salary increments of 5%.

He said the cabinet had approved special relaxations in educational qualification and age criteria for workers who had completed at least 10 years of service but were otherwise ineligible under the policy. According to the government, several employees had served for more than a decade, while some had worked as daily wage employees for nearly 25 years.

The Chief Minister said 1,458 daily wage workers in the forest department have been regularised during the last four years, while another 342 employees have been recruited through regular appointments over the past five years.

Mann also said the state government has provided more than 68,000 government jobs on the basis of merit since taking office and reiterated its commitment to transparent recruitment and employee welfare. He added that the government plans to renovate forest rest houses to improve revenue generation for the department.

The two decisions form part of the Punjab government's broader agenda of tightening regulation in the education sector while expanding employment security for contractual workers in government departments.