Latest news with #TransparencyinFixationandRegulationofFees
NDTV
7 hours ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Delhi Assembly Passes Bill To Curb Arbitrary Fee Hikes In Private Schools
The Delhi Assembly on Friday passed the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, aimed at bringing transparency and accountability in the fee structures of private unaided schools in the national capital. The Bill, introduced by Education Minister Ashish Sood on Monday amid the Monsoon session, is aimed at controlling arbitrary fee increases by private unaided schools in Delhi. Following a four-hour-long discussion in the Delhi Assembly, the proposed legislation was approved and will now be forwarded to Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena for his assent. During the voting process, 41 members from the ruling BJP and 17 lawmakers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were present in the Assembly. Although the AAP put forward eight amendments to the Bill, all of them were turned down during the vote.
India Today
12 hours ago
- Politics
- India Today
Delhi Government introduces bill to regulate fee hikes in all private schools
The Delhi government has introduced the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, in the Assembly. All private and unaided schools in Delhi will now be required to obtain prior approval from the government before increasing their fees, Education Minister Ashish Sood announced on Thursday. Previously, only around 350 schools built on government-allotted land needed such permission. The Delhi government has introduced the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, in the Assembly. The bill seeks to bring all private schools under a common regulatory framework for fee revisions. Sood stated that the aim is to ensure that school fee structures are not altered without oversight and that the system becomes more accountable. The bill addresses gaps in the earlier framework governed by the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973, which applied mainly to schools built on government land with specific allotment clauses. According to official records, nearly 1,443 private schools, primarily located on private land or government land without such conditions, were not subject to existing fee regulations. An earlier order by the Department of Education (DoE), dated June 8, 2022, had declared fee hikes for the 2020–21 academic session invalid. It stated that no increased fees were permitted for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 academic sessions. However, many private schools did not comply and some challenged the directive in court. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the government approved fee increases for 227 schools. Of the 262 schools that submitted fee hike proposals for the 2023–24 session, only 28 were reviewed. The department said this led to unchecked fee increases and some schools later obtained stay orders against circulars intended to control the hikes.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
All private schools in Delhi will now be subject to fee regulation: Govt
New Delhi Parents are hopeful the new bill will help regulate fees. (Representative photo) Fee regulation norms that only applied to select schools under the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA's) land clause will now apply to all government and private schools, once the bill introduced in the assembly is passed, education minister Ashish Sood said on Thursday. Speaking at the sidelines of the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Delhi Assembly, the minister said the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, is likely to be passed on Friday. He said the biggest benefit of the bill will be its equitable applicability, ending a 'decade of unchecked profiteering' by private institutions. 'This bill replaces a toothless, reactive framework with a proactive, empowered, and transparent one. Earlier, the DoE could only approve the fees increased by the schools under the land clause, while there are hundreds of smaller private schools where fee increase goes unchecked. The parents of bigger schools complain, but if the fee of a small private school in Najafgarh increases from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500, it is a 50% hike. This is a huge burden for the parents of that school but they, in most cases, do not complain,' Sood said. He said that of over 1,443 schools, the land clause applied to just about 350 schools, and that fees can be checked by the Department of Education (DoE) if a complaint is made under the Delhi School Education Act & Rules, 1973 (DSEAR, 1973). To be sure, the land clause applies to schools that were allotted land on subsidised rates by the DDA. These schools have to inform DoE about proposed fee hikes online on its portal, for review by the department. Asha Prabhakar, chairperson, National Progressive Schools' Conference (NPSC), said that irrespective of whether schools are built on DDA land, the operational cost of running schools increases every year. 'Fuel costs, teachers' salaries, day-to-day costs are increasing each year. Every school's fees largely depend on these factors as well; these things have to be taken into consideration,' she said. Karan Aggrawal, whose ward studies at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, said he is hoping for relief from rocketing fees, but was unsure how the law would apply. 'We just want one thing—that is school fees should not be so high that a middle-class parent is not able to afford it. That is our only concern,' he said. The education minister said that under the existing norms, the fee changes submitted to the DoE were not approved for any school last year; it was approved for 28 schools in 2023 and 228 schools in 2022. Data accessed by HT revealed sharp fee hikes by schools regulated under the land clause. While 168 proposals were submitted in 2016-17, the number climbed to 262 by 2023-24; the percentage of accepted proposals grew from around 40% in 2019-20 to around 63% in 2022-23 and 67% in 2023-24. 'In 2024-25, interestingly, 244 proposals were submitted but none accepted, rejected or decided upon. This was the year before the election. The reality is that more schools hiked fees than those who even submitted proposals,' Sood said, alleging that the previous government failed to enforce its own regulations. He further accused the previous regime of failing to monitor schools, irrespective of whether they were regulated under the land clause. 'Audits were rare, and legal ambiguities, particularly after a 2024 high court stay, left the DoE paralysed from issuing enforceable orders. The previous government, in their 10-year regime, totally failed to regulate their fee and did not audit their statements of fee or return filed with DoE, except for a few schools,' Sood said. Delhi president of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Saurabh Bharadwaj accused Sood of trying to mislead parents. 'The actual aim of this new act is to protect over 350 private schools in Delhi from various judgments of the high court and the Supreme Court of India... With this new act, these private schools will attempt to bypass the requirement of seeking prior permission from the director of education. They will also use the act to justify and legalise the illegal fee hikes they implemented in the past without approval,' he said. The new bill includes a mandatory audit of accounts, a three-tier regulatory framework, empowered parent committees, strict penalties and public disclosure, the minister said, which were not part of the regulatory framework so far. Aparajita Gautam, president, Delhi Parents Association, said that the government should first quantify the number of schools in the Capital. 'The number of schools stated by the government is different in each statement; first, they should come up with one number which is accurate. Also, play schools should also be included in this bill; why are they left out?' she said.
News18
3 days ago
- Politics
- News18
It is a historic moment..., says Delhi Minister Ashish Sood on Education Bill
New Delhi [India], August 6 (ANI): Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood described the 'Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees), Bill, 2025' as a historic moment, stating that the people of Delhi are happy with the bill, which has been introduced for their to ANI on the Education Bill, Delhi Minister Sood on Tuesday said, 'The people are happy. It has been brought for their benefit. They (parents) can now attend the meetings where the fees of a school are determined. It is a historic moment."The Bill was tabled on the first day of the Monsoon session of the Eighth Legislative Assembly, which commenced on Monday and will continue until August 8. However, the session may be extended depending on the exigencies of legislative Monday, while tabling the Education Bill, 2025, in the Delhi Assembly, Cabinet Minister Sood stated that the legislation seeks to end the commercialisation of education and take action against those exploiting it for profit.'Education is not a thing to be sold. This bill aims to halt the commercialisation of education. We are bringing the bill to take action against those mafias who are selling education…" Sood said while tabling the bill. The proposed law aims to regulate the arbitrary fee hikes by private schools in the national capital, providing relief to lakhs of students and their bill was initially scheduled to be presented during the special session proposed on May 13-14, but the session could not be on 16th April, show-cause notices were served to 10 schools regarding the arbitrary fee hike and to those schools that had not submitted their audit reports. The present Delhi government has already collected audited reports from 600 Delhi Legislative Assembly is set to convene on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. to take up a range of issues, including the consideration of the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, and a short-duration discussion on alleged financial irregularities in a government scholarship scheme. (ANI)
News18
3 days ago
- Politics
- News18
Going to give good results in long term Delhi minister on Education bill
New Delhi [India], August 6 (ANI): Delhi Minister Pankaj Singh said that the Education bill, which was introduced in the Delhi assembly on Monday, is going to give very 'good results in the long term".Delhi Minister Pankaj Singh told ANI, '… The people of Delhi and the parents of students will be happy with this Bill. This is going to give very good results in the long term. It is an ideal bill…I don't know who the people protesting against this bill are…"Education Minister Ashish Sood on Monday tabled the 'Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees), Bill, 2025" in the Delhi Assembly, stating that the legislation seeks to end commercialisation of education and take action against those exploiting it for proposed law aims to regulate the arbitrary fee hikes by private schools in the national capital, providing relief to lakhs of students and their families.'Education is not a thing to be sold. This bill aims to halt the commercialisation of education. We are bringing the bill to take action against those mafias who are selling education…" Sood said while tabling the Bill was tabled on the first day of the Monsoon session of the Eighth Legislative Assembly, which commenced on Monday and will continue until August 8. However, the session may be extended depending on the exigencies of legislative a separate statement, the Delhi Education Minister said, 'Today, I have come here with a permanent solution to the problems faced by millions of parents and children in Delhi, and to a legacy issue that has been ignored for decades."Sood stated that education is 'a sacred duty — a duty we must fulfil for the progress and prosperity of our motherland."He emphasised that the aim of education should not be 'earning', but rather 'learning' and nation-building.'This bill is a small effort on our part to honour Dr. Mukherjee's vision and to ensure that education does not become a burden on the people of India, but instead becomes a path leading them to a better future," he historical references, he discussed how the central government has resolved long-standing legacy issues over the decades, such as the Ram Mandir, Chenab Bridge, Article 370, and electrification of every stated that the Delhi government is now also 'focused on resolving the capital's old and complex issues, one of the most important legacy issues being the continuously rising fees of private schools."'This is not a recent problem, but a question that has troubled Delhi's parents for many decades," he mentioned the declining quality of the government education system over the past years, the significant shortage of schools, and how increasing private school fees have caused financial and mental difficulties for a jab at previous governments, he said, 'Earlier governments repeatedly issued only namesake orders — but they either feared or colluded with education mafias… There were neither audits nor records; everything was run on an ad-hoc basis."He stated that during its tenure, the (AAP) government built only 20 new schools, while approvals for other schools were granted during previous administrations. (ANI)
