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Delhi education update: If this law is made, then transparency will come in determination of fees, arbitrary and children can be saved from exploitation in the name of education.
Delhi Education Update: The Delhi government has introduced a new bill in the assembly to curb the arbitrary fees of private schools. This bill of the Delhi government has come up with a hope of relief for thousands of parents who struggle with rising school fees every year. Education Minister Ashish Sood has described it as ‘a transparent law’ inspired by the public, which will set up a monitoring mechanism at three levels and will provide heavy fines and action on schools that break the rules.
Every year thousands of parents are troubled by the huge fees of private schools. Now the Delhi government has decided to show strictness on this. On the first day of the monsoon session, Education Minister Ashish Sood introduced the Delhi School Education Transparency and Fee Determination Regulation Bill 2025 in the Assembly. Sood claimed that he was threatened to stop the bill and the private education mafia put his full emphasis. But the government has taken this step despite pressure.
Break on arbitrariness of private schools
The Bill aims to curb the arbitrary fees hike by private schools. In this, committees will be formed at three levels, schools, districts and states, which will make the process of fee determination transparent and accountable. The school level committee will have to be formed every year by July 15, and the fees fixed by these committees will be effective for three years.
Transparency will be compulsory in fees determination
While fixing the fees, the location of the school, infrastructure, educational quality, administrative expenses, staff salary, surplus funds and other prescribed norms will be taken into account. Special rights have been given to the Director of Education, so that they can check the records of these committees and issue necessary instructions.
Strict punishment, provision of strict action
If someone recovers more than the fees fixed by the school committee, then he will have to return the additional amount in 20 working days. If you do not do so, you will first be fined, then when the time increases, this amount will double, triple. A penalty of 1 to 5 lakhs on the first violation and 2 to 10 lakh rupees on frequent violations is proposed. A provision has also been made to cancel the recognition of the school or manage it under the continuous breaking the rules.
There will be punishment for harassing students
It has also been clarified in the bill that the school cannot mentally torture the student for not paying the fees. A fine of Rs 50,000 will be imposed on tasks like cutting the name, preventing exam results, depriving of classes or embarrassing publicly.
Will remove the flaws of old law
The Education Minister said that this new bill will remove the flaws of Delhi School Education Act 1973, which has failed to control the fees of private schools. The new law will strengthen financial transparency, monitoring mechanisms and grievances redressal system.
Opposition expressed objection, demand to send to the Select Committee
Atishi, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, demanded to send the bill to the Select Committee. At the same time, he suggested that the fees of the 2024–25 session should be freed so that no new fee increase is in the impact.
This bill of the Delhi government has come up with a hope of relief for thousands of parents who struggle with rising school fees every year. If this law is made, then there will be transparency in determining fees, arbitrary will be curbed and children can be saved from exploitation in the name of education. Now it has to be seen whether this bill can be approved by the assembly or the demand of the opposition is considered.
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