#33 The Delhi School Fee Storm: Balancing Affordability, Autonomy, and Aspiration
Welcome to the 33rd Policy Mandala by India House. This week, we explore how Delhi’s new ordinance tackles the school fee crisis, and what it reveals about India’s education model. Enjoy reading!
It’s June in Delhi.
Monsoon clouds loom large over the capital, and so does another kind of storm: school fees.
If you’re a parent in Delhi, chances are your WhatsApp groups have been buzzing. Not with memes this time, but with screenshots of fee hike notices. In this week’s Policy Mandala, we unpack the Delhi School Fee Crisis and the policy response that followed: The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Ordinance, 2025.
Today’s Mandala unfolds like a drama set in a documentary. Parents and schools are locked in conflict, and the government plays the ever-watchful big brother. At the core lies a delicate balancing act — affordability vs aspiration, autonomy vs accountability.
This edition explores what the government must do, and just as crucially, what it must avoid, to untangle the growing puzzle that is India’s education system.
Let’s go.
First, this isn’t new.
Not to Delhi. Not to India.
And this also isn’t the first regulation. Nor will it be the last.
So, why are we talking about it?
Because this is Delhi — one of the most educated regions in India, the launchpad of much-hyped and talked-about education reforms like Mission Buniyaad, the Happiness Curriculum, and a public school system that became a poster for political campaigns across states.
It’s also home to some of India’s most elite private schools. Nearly 8 of India’s top 20 private schools are located here. And yet, Delhi now finds itself at the heart of a growing public outcry — private school fees rising faster, unpredictably, and without much transparency.
Parents protested.
The media picked it up.
Politicians — both in power and opposition — jumped in.
And finally, the Delhi government responded.
The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Ordinance, 2025.
Cleared last week, the ordinance proposes a three-tier framework to approve, audit, and adjudicate school fee hikes. It bars schools from increasing fees more than once every three years — and only after committee approval.
The move is being positioned as a win for the middle class. Parents seem cautiously hopeful. Schools, less so — but accepting, for now.
But why an Ordinance, Not a Bill?
The Delhi government didn’t wait for the monsoon session. With the Assembly not in session and public anger rising — protests outside schools, legal petitions piling up, and social media outrage from parent groups — the government needed a quick fix.
An ordinance offered that. Instant enforcement, no legislative wait.
The DPS Dwarka incident became a tipping point — where parents were shocked by a steep fee hike and students were allegedly removed for non-payment. The government pulled the emergency lever and the ordinance kicked in immediately.
A full-fledged bill is still expected in the upcoming session — where it will go through debate, amendment, and vote.
So, what exactly does the ordinance say?
Picture this.
Mohan, a 40 year old, is a sales manager in a car showroom. His annual increment barely keeps up with inflation — 4 to 6%. It covers rent, food, petrol. But when his daughter’s school hikes fees by 22%, his entire budget falls apart. He’s not against paying for good education — he just didn’t expect the school’s inflation to outpace the country’s.
This is where the ordinance tries to bring some order.
First, it sets up a three-level oversight system — like an escalation ladder:
Start at the school-level committee.
If unresolved, go to a district appellate body.
If still stuck, a state revision committee steps in.
Each of these committees is meant to be diverse and balanced—comprising not just school management, but also teachers, parents, government nominees, and even financial experts.
Second, schools can only raise fees once every three years. No more annual shocks. And fee hikes must be justified — based on tangible inputs like infrastructure upgrades, audited accounts, and the services offered.
Third, the ordinance introduces strong safeguards:
Penalties up to ₹10 lakh for violations.
A ban on coercive fee collection methods.
Time-bound dispute resolution — for instance, school-level committees must respond within 30 days, after which the matter escalates to the next level.
But the real question: Who does this actually help?
The Delhi elite — those paying ₹6–10 lakh annually — can absorb the shocks.
The urban poor mostly rely on government schools or low-fee private ones.
It’s the middle class — stuck between aspiration and affordability — that’s gasping for air. And they’re the ones who risk losing access to quality schools.
Opening a school in Delhi reportedly requires over 125 documents and 150 procedures. Regulatory overload suffocates small, low-fee schools — the only affordable option for many families. If regulation becomes too rigid, smaller schools may stop expanding, cut corners, or shut down. Between 2015 and 2018, over 2,469 schools were shut down across India for not meeting RTE norms.
Innovation may also stall. Think of AI-enabled classrooms, digital labs — they all need investment. But if increasing fees becomes a bureaucratic minefield, schools may choose to stay stuck in traditional curriculums.
To add to it, The Delhi High Court in 2023 ruled that private schools must pay teachers as per the 7th Pay Commission. Salaries are now a huge burden — especially in moderate-fee schools. And there’s no rule ensuring fee hikes actually benefit teachers.
So schools can raise fees — without improving salaries or quality.
So what makes schooling so expensive?
One word: land.
In Delhi, land is prohibitively expensive.
CBSE norms say urban schools must have at least 1,500–2,000 sq. metres of land. That’s ₹15–20 crore worth of land in many Delhi neighbourhoods — even before construction begins.
RTE norms add more pressure — playgrounds, labs, boundary walls, a classroom per teacher. Together, these rules choke supply.
The result? Few new schools, rising demand, and soaring costs.
Real estate dynamics quietly fuel fee inflation. Often, land is bought decades ago and schools are built later, riding on massive appreciation. These costs get passed on to parents. Meanwhile, schools with freehold land often escape regulatory scrutiny — slipping through the cracks.
This brings us to a deeper question: What are parents really looking for?
It’s not just academics. It’s safety, discipline, English-medium teaching, infrastructure, and increasingly — brand value.
But cost remains central.
According to NSSO 2017–18, the average annual private school fee in Delhi at the secondary level was ₹32,003 — nearly three times the national average of ₹11,026. For a family earning ₹5–15 lakh, schooling two kids can cost over ₹60,000 a year.
Add books, transport, coaching, and extra-curriculars — and education can take up 15–25% of disposable income. Especially for households juggling EMIs and high urban living costs.
And Delhi isn’t alone.
A LocalCircles survey of 31,000 parents across 309 districts found:
36% faced fee hikes of 50–80%
8% saw hikes over 80%
93% said state governments had failed to act
The problem is national.
Delhi just happens to be the epicentre.
So, what would a better solution look like?
First, regulate existing student fees — not new admissions.
If a child is admitted at ₹80,000, schools shouldn’t hike it more than 6–8% a year. But let them set market-driven rates for new students — like colleges do.
Second, link fee hikes to teacher salaries.
If fees go up, schools must show that a fair share supports better pay or improved facilities — not just admin perks or brand building.
Third, target regulation where it matters.
Schools charging more than ₹1.5 lakh or having over 1,000 students should face tighter scrutiny. But leave the budget private schools alone. They’re already struggling under infrastructure and recognition pressures.
Fourth, revisit the not-for-profit mandate.
Private schools in India don’t operate as charities by choice — they’re legally required to. The law mandates that schools be run by trusts or societies.
But here’s the irony — coaching centres for IIT and NEET prep can function as full-fledged businesses, charging ₹2–3 lakh a year.
So why not schools?
Why not let them be honest, tax-paying private enterprises, with transparent books and public audits — instead of operating in legal grey zones?
The current setup creates a shadow economy.
Schools route profits through complex fee structures or related-party deals.
It’s neither clean nor fair.
Finally, let’s not forget the real fix: public education.
Until government schools offer aspirational, reliable, and dignified learning — the pressure on private schools will stay high. Regulation will remain a band-aid.
The real cure lies in restoring trust in public systems.
The Delhi ordinance is a signal that the current model isn’t working.
But it’s also a warning, that regulation without reform can do more harm than good.
So here’s the question we leave you with:
Can India protect its middle class without choking the institutions that serve them?
Until next week,
Policy Mandala.
The team behind Policy Mandala has launched a 4-month policy program for professionals, the Policy Pioneers Program, in collaboration with IIM Raipur and the Public Systems Lab at IIT Delhi.
Know more about it here.
Book Mandala
In this section, we suggest a book to be read/listened to each week, for the inner policy enthusiast in you :)
Book: Rethinking Public Institutions in India
Authors: Devesh Kapur, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Milan Vaishnav
About the Book:
In Rethinking Public Institutions in India, editors Devesh Kapur, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Milan Vaishnav bring together a sharp and wide-ranging set of essays that dissect the institutional backbone of Indian democracy. From the Parliament to the judiciary, from the Election Commission to financial regulators, the book interrogates whether these public institutions are still capable of meeting the demands of a 21st-century India. Rather than romanticizing the state, it offers a clear-eyed analysis of where institutions are fraying, how accountability mechanisms are weakening, and why deep reform — not just tinkering — is urgently needed.
Our Take:
What makes this volume deeply relevant to today’s policy conversations — including those around education regulation — is its bold insistence that India's future depends on institutional renewal, not just policy ambition. In the context of school fee regulation, for instance, it reminds us that no ordinance or reform can succeed without strong, responsive, and citizen-centric public institutions. For anyone grappling with the complexities of governance in India — be it in education, health, or fiscal federalism — this book is an indispensable guide to both the promise and the perils of state-led reform.
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The team behind Policy Mandala has launched a 4-month policy program for professionals, the Policy Pioneers Program, in collaboration with IIM Raipur and the Public Systems Lab at IIT Delhi. Know more about it here - https://theindiahouse.org/policy-pioneers/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=PM.
Timely and timeless topic. Balanced view with the bottom line that regulation without reform is rootless solution. You were able to connect the dots masterfully - land, inflation etc.