Delhi government's ordinance on fee regulation will benefit private schools, claims AAP

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday alleged that the BJP-led Delhi government's ordinance on regulating fee hikes is in favour of private schools and decried it as an attempt to "fool" parents. There was no immediate reaction from the ruling BJP to the allegations. The Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved an ordinance on regulating fee structure in private schools that empowers the city government to impose fines of up to Rs 10 lakh on them and even take away their right to propose fee revision if they violate norms.

Delhi's Education Minister Ashish Sood said that the cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta approved the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Ordinance, 2025. The ordinance will be sent for presidential assent through the Lieutenant Governor. Addressing a press conference, AAP Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that in order to favour private schools, the government brought the ordinance through the backdoor. Calling it an "open" and "blatant" surrender of governance, he said that the law is drafted entirely in favour of school owners.

Fee hikes without approval

"Ever since the BJP formed a government in Delhi, the first session of private schools began with a wave of fee hikes . Parents were left with no choice; they were forced to pay the increased amount," he said. Explaining earlier rules for revising fees, he said it was mandatory for schools to get prior approval from the Directorate of Education. "Only after receiving this approval could the fee hike be implemented. But starting from April 1, private schools arbitrarily increased their fees without seeking any such approval, and the government failed to take any action.

"No school was instructed by the government to roll back the hike or refund the extra fees collected from parents, " he claimed. The former Delhi minister claimed that the government passed it in the cabinet without consulting anyone. "The draft was not made public, was not uploaded online, and no citizen feedback was sought," he charged. He said that it was expected that the bill would be brought before the Legislative Assembly so that opposition parties could scrutinise it but "the government is so afraid and under pressure from the private school lobby that they did not risk even that," he said.

Power shift to school committees

Reasoning that the ordinance is built to benefit private school owners, he said, "Under the new setup, the power to fix fees has been handed over to committees formed at the school level. These Fee Regulation Committees will be considered final authorities. "The fees decided by them will automatically be treated as ‘approved’. There will be no need to seek permission from any government body." The school committee will have five members from the school itself --three teachers, one principal, and one member from school management. For the remaining members, they claim that parents will be selected through a lottery system.

"But the lottery means any name can come up -- it might be someone who has no knowledge of school finances, no understanding of audits, and perhaps no interest in participating. The day a meeting is called, they may not even show up. "Out of five parent members if four show up and one doesn’t and all five school members attend, the vote will always tilt in favour of the school," he added.