New Bill to be implemented this year, all private schools in Delhi will be covered under the law, says Minister

The Bill was passed by the Assembly on August 8. As per the Act, while a school-level fee regulation committee is to be set up by July 15, school managements have to send fee proposals to the panel by July 31.

The committee members need to decide on a fee structure unanimously by September 15, failing which, by September 30, the matter would be passed to a district-level fee appellate committee.

“The Bill has been introduced to curb arbitrary fee hikes by private schools… Earlier, only about 300 schools that were allotted land by the DDA were regulated under the Delhi School Education Act of 1973. Now, all private schools will fall under this new law,” Sood said, adding that nearly 18 lakh children study in private schools in Delhi.

The minister also said that while the approved fee structure will remain valid for three years, parents will have veto power.

Also, non-compliance by schools will attract penalties – ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh per student, which will double every 20 days of non-compliance, Sood said. “Like what happened at Delhi Public School Dwarka… Suppose a school bars students from attending classes and three students are made to sit in the library… then Rs 50,000 will be charged as fine for each student,” he added.

After his address, a law student asked him, “Is capping fees constitutional or unconstitutional?” To this, he said, “Our aim is to regulate fees rather than set any cap. After studying the existing mechanisms to regulate fees in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, we have formulated this policy to ensure increased transparency… This Act will strengthen the existing law.”

Tulika Singh, a first-year law student, said, “…this Bill is very important… because of its comprehensive coverage.  Instead of  just covering 300 schools, it has now expanded its ambit to 1,700 schools. Secondly, there is diversity and inclusivity in the three-tier committee system..”

However, there were voices of dissent as well. Vikas, a student, raised concern about the requirement that at least 15% of parents must jointly file a complaint for it to be considered by the school-level committee.

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