AAP accuses govt of ‘secretly’ passing school fee ordinance

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Delhi Government over a new ordinance that allegedly permits private school managements to control fees without prior approval from the Education Department. Calling it an “assault on Delhi’s middle class”, AAP Delhi state president Saurabh Bharadwaj said the ordinance had been drafted and passed in secrecy without public consultation or legislative scrutiny.

Addressing a press conference, Bharadwaj accused the government of bowing to the private school lobby and bypassing the Delhi Assembly to avoid debate.

Bharadwaj claimed that since April 1, several private schools across Delhi had arbitrarily increased fees under various heads—uniforms, books, extracurricular activities and even air conditioning—without any approval from the Department of Education, in violation of existing norms. “No school was instructed by the government to roll back the hike or refund the extra fees collected from parents,” he said.

According to Bharadwaj, the new ordinance—whose full text has not yet been made public—transfers the power to fix fees to a Fee Regulation Committee within each school. “This committee will consist mainly of insiders—three teachers, one principal, one management representative and five randomly selected parents. But the process is rigged. If just one parent doesn’t turn up and all school members attend, the vote will always go in favour of the school,” he alleged.

He said the government’s claim that a fine of Rs 50,000 would be imposed on schools violating fee norms was meaningless, as the fees decided by the internal committee would automatically be treated as “approved”. “Why would a school demand more than the inflated fee already rubber-stamped by its own committee?” Bharadwaj asked.

Highlighting the difficulty of challenging such fee decisions, he said the ordinance requires 15 per cent of parents to come together to file an appeal—a near-impossible task. “In a school with 3,000 students, that’s 450 parents. Where will a parent get the names and addresses of so many others?” he said, adding that the entire system was designed to prevent any meaningful recourse.

Bharadwaj also alleged that the BJP government deliberately avoided bringing the ordinance before the Delhi Assembly. “They know it won’t stand up to scrutiny. Calling a special session would take just two days. Why wait for the Monsoon Session in August?” he said.

He accused the BJP of acting at the behest of private school owners who, according to him, actively campaigned for the party during elections.

Concluding his remarks, Bharadwaj said the ordinance had stripped parents of their rights and protections. “This law has been designed to empower school owners completely, while leaving Delhi’s middle class with no say and no safeguards,” he said. “If the government had any confidence in its actions, it would have made the draft public and debated it in the Assembly. Instead, it chose silence, secrecy, and surrender.”