Guwahati, Nov 26: The Assam Christian Forum (ACF) has expressed strong dismay over the state government’s move to regulate the fee structure of private schools in Assam.
The Assam government on Tuesday tabled the Assam Private Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fees) Amendment Bill, 2025, aimed at tightening the regulation of fees charged by private educational institutions.
ACF, which represents Christian communities across the state, said it is “profoundly alarmed” by the Cabinet’s approval of the Bill, asserting that the proposed amendments would strip away long-standing protections for minority-run institutions by enabling “unchecked government control” over their fee structures.
According to the Bill, the new provisions seek to strengthen transparency by ensuring that all non-government educational institutions—including those established and managed by minorities under Article 30(1) of the Constitution—are subject to mandatory registration, fee fixation, and periodic renewal as prescribed by law.
“These measures aim to promote equity and affordability in education, ensuring that all private institutions operate within a fair and regulated framework, protecting the interests of students and parents,” a government official said.
In a statement, ACF said the Bill ends the earlier hands-off approach toward minority institutions and hands the state “sweeping powers” to fix fees, monitor collections, and intervene at will. For Christian missionary institutions—described by ACF as “pillars of education in Assam for over a century”—the move feels like a direct attack on their autonomy and their ability to run schools according to their values.
“We are pained and feel intimidated,” said Archbishop John Moolachira, Chairman of ACF. “These schools are not businesses; they are nation-builders, our community’s heartbeat, preserving our identity, language, and culture through education. Now the government wants to decide how we fund them, which could force many to close or lose what makes them special.”
ACF said its concerns are intensified by the recent passage of the Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Act, 2024, which many in the Christian community view as discriminatory. It warned that without the freedom to set reasonable fees, minority-run schools may struggle to pay teachers, maintain infrastructure, or offer scholarships to marginalised students from tribal and remote areas.
Such constraints, it argued, could erode the distinctive Christian ethos of these institutions and violate the constitutional guarantee under Article 30(1), which grants religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer their own educational institutions.
ACF fearfully noted that this could be “the beginning of greater interference,” endangering the survival of minority education in a diverse and sensitive state like Assam.
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