In 2017, the late actor Irrfan Khan delivered a line in the film Hindi Medium that hit too close to reality:
“This headmaster isn’t really a headmaster, sir, he’s a businessman. And these days, education isn’t education — it’s a business… just business.”- Irrfan Khan in Hindi Medium
Today, that sentiment echoes far beyond the silver screen, spilling into the streets of the national capital as parents rise in protest against unaffordable private school fee hikes.
The fee hike has also triggered a political row in Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of colluding with an “education mafia” to exploit parents and students.
In response, Delhi’s Education Minister, Ashish Sood, has announced new measures to tackle the issue. But this is far from a new problem.
Every year, fee hikes make headlines, political parties trade blame, but parents never get a solid resolution.
Mental Harassment, Library Detention: The Cost of Not Paying Up
Across Delhi, furious parents allege that private schools are not only raising fees arbitrarily but also punishing their children when those demands aren’t met. Children are being segregated, made to sit in libraries, and subjected to what many call “mental harassment.”
From Dwarka to Pitampura, Rohini to Rajouri Garden, the anger is palpable. Placards are raised, slogans shouted, and the question hangs heavy in the air: Where is the regulation?
Education or Exploitation?
Education Minister Ashish Sood recently went public with a list of schools and their staggering fee hikes:
DPS Dwarka increased its fees by 20% in 2020, followed by 13%, 9%, 8%, and 7% hikes in successive years.
Srijan School saw a 35% hike during AAP’s tenure and another 36% in 2024–25.
Ahlcon International School which is under the scanner for ₹15 crore in financial irregularities, was still allowed to increase its fees by 28% across two years.
Salwan Public School, currently being investigated for a fund misuse of ₹1.68 crore, increased fees by 39% over two years.
So, if even the education minister knows the figures, and parents are taking to the streets, what’s stopping the government from acting?
Loopholes and Legal Grey Zones
The problem lies buried under bureaucracy and legal ambiguity.
As per the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973, schools on government-allotted land must take approval from the Directorate of Education (DoE) before hiking fees. But only 335 out of 1,677 private schools in Delhi fall under this mandate.
The remaining 80% operate on unauthorized or freehold land — and are essentially left unregulated.
In 2018, the Delhi High Court ruled that DoE approval isn't mandatory as long as schools aren’t profiting — a subjective benchmark that many exploit.
The “Oversight” That Never Worked
Delhi’s Fee Anomaly Committees, mandated by the court, were meant to address these very grievances.
They remain largely inactive — a formality on paper, ineffective in practice.
Even new promises sound like déjà vu. Minister Sood announced that the government would now publish school-wise fee hike data and allow parents to report violations via email.
But this is too little, too late.
The National Picture: A Pattern of Silence
This is not just Delhi’s problem — it’s India’s.
A LocalCircles survey of 31,000 parents across 309 districts found that:
36% reported fee hikes of 50–80%
8% saw hikes of over 80%
93% said state governments had done nothing to address the issue
In 2021, even the Supreme Court reminded us that while private schools have autonomy, they cannot commercialise or profiteer.
And yet, profiteering continues under the guise of autonomy.
The crisis of private education isn’t about affordability — it’s about accountability.
If governments won’t regulate, if oversight bodies stay defunct, and if schools treat students as clients, then what future are we building?
Parents are exhausted, children are anxious, and trust in the system is eroding fast.
We need more than rhetoric. We need regulation. And we need to ask, Janab, Aise Kaise?