Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said the state government is weighing a fee revision in government colleges to reduce their dependence on official grants and allow them to fund routine activities from their own revenues. Speaking after a review meeting on Thursday, Rymbui noted that government college fees remain far lower than those in deficit or private institutions, limiting principles’ flexibility. “We cannot deny the fact that the fees in government colleges are very less compared to people’s colleges or deficit colleges,” he said.
Under the proposed model, colleges would raise fees modestly-by 10-15 percent-with the additional portion payable once students receive post-matric scholarships. “Suppose a college collects Rs 11,000 or Rs 12,000 now; let us make it Rs 18,000-Rs 19,000. The student pays what they can now, and the rest after the scholarship comes,” Rymbui explained. He cited Kiang Nangbah Government College as an illustration: an Rs 8,000 increase per student across 3,000 enrolments would generate about Rs 2.4 crore annually.