Last week Delhi assembly passed the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill 2025 to ‘bring about transparency in the matters of fixation, regulation and collection of fee’, applicable to all the 1798 recognised private schools in the city. These include unaided schools, minority schools, and schools on private land too. This Bill, which in due course would become an act, is in alignment with the National Policy on Education 2020 that seeks to curb commercialisation of education and profiteering by educational institutions.

In Delhi, the private school sector exploded by a staggering 1423.71% since 1973, becoming an industry fuelled by parental anxiety and unchecked by any meaningful regulation. What should have been a sacred duty, as thinkers and reformers like Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee envisioned, was corrupted into a business of balance sheets and profit margins.

We saw the grotesque spectacle of fee hikes, with a 2024 report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) highlighting that private school fees in urban areas had increased by over 169% in the last decade, outpacing salary growth. This happened even as the quality of infrastructure and the dignity of teacher salaries stagnated.

For years, successive governments in Delhi were mute spectators to this robbery. They were either intimidated by the powerful “education mafias” or, worse, complicit in their dealings. Laws that existed on paper, like Section 17(3) of the DSEAR, 1973, which mandated prior approval for fee hikes, were rendered toothless. The state, which had a sworn duty to protect its children, abdicated its responsibility, leaving parents to fight lonely, expensive, and often futile battles in court.

Today, we declare that the era of neglect is over. As a government, we have learned from past shortcomings. Our focus now is on ensuring that once a child is in a school, her/his future is not held hostage by commercial interests. Our instrument for initiative is the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025. This is not a mere regulatory amendment; it’s a radical restructuring of power. It’s a document that tears down the walls of commerce and hands keys of the institution back to its true stakeholders: the parents.

The revolutionary heart of this Bill lies in its rejection of the old bureaucratic model, where a single officer in a closed room held all the cards. We are replacing this with a more accessible, democratic framework.

First, we are creating school-level committees. The School-Level Fee Regulation Committee will no longer be a rubber stamp for the management. With eight votes held by parents and teachers against a mere two for the management, we are ensuring that the community’s voice is not just heard, but is the deciding factor.

Second, we are handing parents the ultimate weapon of accountability: the Parental Veto. In a provision that is a true Brahmastra for parents, this Bill mandates that fee increase requires the unanimous agreement of the committee’s members. If even one parent representative dissents, the proposal is blocked. The power dynamic is fundamentally, irrevocably altered. The management must now convince, not command. They must justify, not dictate.

Third, the Bill establishes a powerful, multi-tiered grievance redressal mechanism. It empowers individual parents to voice concerns through Parent-Teachers Associations and the new School Level Fee Regulation Committee prior to any formal appeal. Crucially, the Education Department can now launch an investigation based on a single parental complaint about an arbitrary fee hike.

The Bill formally recognises the power of collective action. The 15% threshold to form an “aggrieved parents group” is not a barrier but an empowering tool for collective bargaining. In a class of 40, this means just six united parents can legally launch an appeal to the District Fee Appellate Committee.

This provision transforms the fight for fair fees from an individual struggle into a recognised, collective right. Applying to every private unaided recognized school in Delhi, this entire framework mandates transparency and floods the dark corners of school finances with inescapable light.

This Bill is a declaration that the democratisation of education, not stopping at the school gate but extending into the functioning of the school itself, into its finances, and into its philosophy. It is Chief Minister Rekha Gupta government’s solemn pledge to create a new social contract between schools and parents, built on trust and transparency. It is about ensuring that in the schools, the only thing that grows unchecked is the potential of our children.

(Ashish Sood is Delhi's Minister of Home, Power, Education, Higher Education, Training & Technical Education. Views expressed are his own)