Delhi government strives to streamline school fees

The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill 2025, introduced by Education Minister Ashish Sood, was passed in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday to bring about transparency in the matters of fixation, regulation, and collection of fees applicable to all 1798 recognised private schools in the state (Delhi), which includes unaided schools, minority schools, and schools on private land.

- C. RAJASEKHAR

The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill 2025, introduced by Education Minister Ashish Sood, was passed in the Vidhan Sabha on Friday to bring about transparency in the matters of fixation, regulation, and collection of fees applicable to all 1798 recognised private schools in the state (Delhi), which includes unaided schools, minority schools, and schools on private land. According to the state government, this law is in alignment with the National Policy on Education 2020, which seeks to curb commercialization of education and profiteering by educational institutions.

What are the key provisions of the Act?

One, a cap on the frequency of school fee fixation; Section 5(6) of the Act states that the fee approved by the School Level Fee Regulation shall be binding on the school for three academic years. In other words, schools can determine fee schedules only once in three years. This would prohibit frequent revisions of school fees by private schools in Delhi and consequently, put an end to uncertainty and harassment of parents.

Two, it lays down clear markers or determinants for fee fixation by a school; Section 8(a) to (j) list the factors for fee determination, such as the infrastructure made available to the students for qualitative education, the education standard of the school, the expenditure on administration and maintenance, availability of qualified teaching and non-teaching staff and their salaries, provision of reasonable amounts for yearly salary increments, proportion of school income incurred as expenditure on the students, etc. This would remove arbitrariness in fee determination and instead base it on hard data and evidence.