The beginning of a new academic session brings excitement and fresh hopes for children. New classrooms, textbooks, uniforms and the promise of another year of learning create an atmosphere of enthusiasm. For children, moving into the next class is a moment of happiness. However, for thousands of parents in Kashmir Division and the winter-zone areas of Jammu Division, this transition also brings a familiar financial challenge. Behind every new school bag, set of books and uniform lies a story of adjustment, compromise and silent sacrifice.
The expenses associated with a new academic session are no longer limited to school fees. They begin with admission or re-admission charges, monthly tuition fees, annual charges and other institutional payments. Soon after come the expenses for textbooks, notebooks, stationery, uniforms, shoes, school bags and transportation.
Individually, these expenses may appear manageable, but when they arrive together, they can consume a considerable portion of a family’s monthly income. For parents with two or three school-going children, the situation becomes even more challenging. Each child has different academic requirements, and every new class brings additional expenses. What should ideally be a period of happiness often becomes a time of financial anxiety.
The situation deserves particular attention in Jammu and Kashmir, where families depend on diverse sources of income. A government employee may have a fixed monthly salary, but a daily-wage worker, small shopkeeper, farmer or person dependent on seasonal employment may not enjoy the same financial stability. For such families, arranging educational expenses within a limited or uncertain income is a difficult task.
The challenge is particularly significant for families in remote and economically disadvantaged areas of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Rajouri and Poonch. Purchasing school necessities may involve travelling to nearby towns, adding transportation costs to an already demanding budget. For families with children studying outside their villages, daily commuting expenses further increase the burden.
Another concern is the growing number of additional expenses associated with schooling. Apart from tuition fees, parents often have to arrange money for annual charges, examination expenses, extracurricular activities, school functions and other requirements. The cumulative financial impact of these payments on ordinary households deserves greater consideration.
The affordability of textbooks and uniforms also requires attention. Every new academic session often brings a fresh list of books and prescribed materials. Parents may find themselves purchasing entirely new sets even when some books remain in usable condition. Textbook exchange programmes, reuse of suitable learning materials and affordable uniform arrangements could provide meaningful relief.
However, the burden of a new academic session is not merely financial; it is deeply emotional.
Behind every purchase is a parent making calculations that children rarely understand. A father may spend hours thinking about how to manage school fees alongside rent, groceries and electricity bills. A mother may quietly postpone buying something for herself so that her child can have the required books or a new uniform. Some parents work additional hours, while others borrow money, all to ensure that their children do not feel deprived.
Children see the new school bag, but they rarely see the sacrifices behind it. They ask for new shoes, stationery or other necessities with the innocence of childhood, unaware that their parents may already be struggling to arrange the money. Parents, meanwhile, rarely express their difficulties because they do not want their children to feel inferior to their classmates.
For many families, education represents much more than an academic qualification. It is a hope for social mobility, financial independence and a better future. Parents who could not fulfill their own aspirations often invest their hopes in their children. They are willing to compromise on their comforts because they believe education can provide opportunities that were unavailable to them.
This is particularly relevant in Jammu and Kashmir, where education remains one of the most important means of improving socio-economic circumstances. Parents in remote villages and economically weaker households often make considerable sacrifices to ensure that their children receive quality education and compete on equal terms with students from more privileged backgrounds.
There is, therefore, a need for educational institutions to adopt a more sensitive and transparent approach towards fee structures and additional charges. Parents should be informed about expected expenses in advance so that they can plan their finances. Instalment-based payment options, affordable uniform arrangements and textbook exchange programmes should be encouraged wherever possible. Financial difficulties should never become a reason for humiliating parents or making children feel inferior.
The government also has an important responsibility. Government schools must be strengthened through better infrastructure, adequate teaching staff and improved learning facilities. Scholarship schemes, free textbook distribution and other educational assistance programmes should reach deserving students in a timely and transparent manner. Effective monitoring of applicable fee regulations is equally important to ensure that parents are not subjected to arbitrary or unexplained financial demands.
We celebrate students when they secure excellent marks, appreciate teachers for their dedication and recognise institutions for their achievements. But how often do we acknowledge the father who works extra hours to pay the tuition fee, the mother who adjusts the household budget to purchase books or the family that sacrifices its comforts to keep a child in school?
Their contribution may not appear on a report card, but it is present in every achievement of their children.
As another academic session begins, we must look beyond the excitement of new books, uniforms and classrooms. We must also recognise the families working silently behind the scenes to make education possible. Every child deserves to enter a classroom with confidence and dignity, regardless of whether they belong to a financially prosperous household or a modest family in a remote village.
A new academic session should open a new chapter of opportunities in a child’s life, not another chapter of financial distress in a parent’s life. Education must remain a pathway to opportunity, not a burden that makes ordinary families struggle to sustain their children’s future.
Adnan Ur Rehman Batt is a Physics Postgraduate and Founder of Student’s Guide Organisation for Educational Advancement, Doda, Chenab Valley.
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