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

New Delhi, Jun 11 (PTI) The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday alleged that the Delhi government's ordinance on regulating fee hikes is in favour of private schools and decried it as an attempt to fool parents.

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 convener Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that in order to favour private schools, the government brought the ordinance through the backdoor.

"The BJP government brought an ordinance secretly for the benefit of private schools. Almost all the private schools in Delhi increased their fees. The parents of the children had to pay the increased fees.

"Until now, the rule was that private schools had to get permission from the Directorate of Education before increasing fees, but this time the schools increased the fees just like that. The government did not order any school to withdraw the increased fees and now an ordinance is being brought to save these schools.

"The government is under pressure from private schools and this ordinance has been passed for them," he charged.

There was no immediate reaction from the government or the ruling BJP to the allegations.

Bharadwaj said that the ordinance proposes that there will be a school-level committee that will decide on the fee hike.

"It will comprise school representatives and parents. If there is a meeting of the committee and parents do not turn up or the school uses some means to stop them, the fee hike will be decided by the school representatives," he said. PTI SLB RT