Can a church pay school fees as an act of benevolence if the student has no family?

Answer:

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" (James 1:27).

God charges individual Christians and not the church with the responsibility to take care of orphans and widows. If this student has no family, someone should have taken him in, giving him a home, food, and clothing. If a Christian cannot afford to do it on his own, others can help with the costs. The same goes for educational costs.

If we are talking about higher education, then the student should also look into getting work so as to pay his way through school, at least as much as he can afford. Yes, it means that for a while he won't have time for fun or time to get into trouble, but he will turn out to be a better man as a result.

Churches are charged with dealing with only a small subclass of widows (I Timothy 5). The widow's family and individual Christians handle the majority. There is no passage that instructs churches to care for orphans, only individual Christians. Individuals cannot push their responsibilities off to the church or any other organization. See Orphans and Their Care.