Furious parents are rallying outside Delhi schools over ‘arbitrary fee hikes, segregation over AC charges’

In New Delhi’s Maharaja Agrasen Model School (MAMS), for instance, pre-school admission that used to cost Rs 46,000 annually now costs as much as Rs 70,000, say parents. The school has even segregated classrooms on the basis of whether or not parents are willing to pay an extra Rs 7,500 for their children to sit in an air-conditioned room, they said.

“This is the first school that has openly created an inferiority complex among children,” Pankaj Gupta, a parent and general secretary of Northwest Parent Association, told ThePrint.

“Teachers tell students things like, ‘you are sitting with EWS (economically weaker section) children’—implying that they are lesser. My son is in the general category, yet he is placed in a non-AC class because I refused to pay the capitation fee disguised as an AC charge,” he added.

ThePrint reached Maharaja Agrasen Model School through emails but received no response. This report will be updated if a response is received.

According to Gupta, his son and two nephews study in the MAMS pre-school and around Rs 2.5 lakh is paid as annual fee for the three kids, including tuition costs, books, uniforms and “other hidden charges”. “And that doesn’t even include the Rs 1,000 they collect in cash for the annual function, where even drinking water isn’t provided for the children,” he said, adding that many of these costs are “undocumented, cash-only and untraceable”.

The larger concern, according to parents, is the unchecked commercialisation of education while for parents with multiple children, the pressure is becoming unbearable.

“There’s inflation in every sector, but education inflation is outpacing everything, and our salaries are not increasing proportionately,” a parent who wished to remain anonymous told ThePrint. “If you’re paying Rs 50,000 extra per child, annually, how long can a single-income family sustain that?”

Amid the growing political controversy over alleged illegal fee hike in private schools across Delhi, education minister Ashish Sood announced Monday that detailed data on fee hikes will be made public within 10 days on the Directorate of Education (DoE) website to promote transparency.

He also said a city-wide audit of all 1,677 private recognised schools will be held, led by newly formed sub divisional magistrate-headed committees comprising tehsildars and accounts officials. Sood blamed the previous AAP government for allowing arbitrary fee hikes, claiming that only 75 private schools were audited annually during the party’s tenure.

Countering this, former education minister Atishi accused the current BJP-led administration of enabling fee profiteering and defended the AAP government’s track record, stating that no arbitrary fee hike was permitted under the party’s rule and audits were conducted by CAG-empanelled firms.

In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta Wednesday, she urged immediately halt of fee collections until audits are completed within a set timeframe. Going by the existing law, all schools must be audited annually and seek prior approval before any fee increase, especially if they are on government-allotted land.

दिल्ली में बेलगाम फीस बढ़ने का कारण है प्राइवेट स्कूलों और भाजपा की साँठ-गाँठ।

इस साँठ-गाँठ के सूत्रधार हैं – श्री भरत अरोड़ा। ये प्राइवेट स्कूलों की संस्था – ‘Action Committee for Private Schools’ के चेयरमैन हैं, और सालों से फीस की बढ़ोतरी के लिए लड़ते आए हैं। यह भाजपा के… pic.twitter.com/cVbFxZN7Yp

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) April 9, 2025

Atishi, now Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, also recommended that even minimal hikes be approved only for schools that genuinely cannot cover their expenses otherwise.

Citing the past decade under AAP, she noted that strict regulations capped fee hikes, with audits leading to refunds for overcharged students, and warned against a return to commercialisation of education.

Also Read: 44% Indian parents say their kids’ schools have hiked fees by 50-80% in 3 yrs—LocalCircles survey

‘Silence, resistance & dismissal of queries from schools’

Just two days before the new academic session began at Birla Vidya Niketan in Pushp Vihar, South Delhi, parents were taken by surprise. The online fee payment portal suddenly reflected a significant spike in the annual fee—a hike of over Rs 28,000 compared to the previous year. Adding to their dismay was a new component: an “AC installation charge” being collected from every student, amounting to Rs 10,800 annually, the parents said.

This left the parents reeling, while the school administration did not provide any explanation.

“The total annual fee suddenly jumped to Rs 1,55,000 from Rs 1,27,000 last year—and all this was without any official circular or breakdown,” another parent who wished to remain anonymous told ThePrint. “Over the last two years, school fee has increased by 31 percent. This excludes transportation costs.”

What has followed in all schools has mostly just been a wave of confusion, discontent, and attempts by parents to engage with the authorities—only to be met with silence, resistance, and in some cases, outright dismissal, at least four parents from different private schools in Delhi told ThePrint.

According to the parent mentioned above, the initial fee slip showed certain components that were earlier charged quarterly being billed annually, adding to the perceived hike. After the parents began discussing the issue on WhatsApp groups, the fee structure was altered again, this time without any notification, making it impossible for many to keep track of the changes, the parent claimed.

When some parents attempted to meet the school authorities to seek clarity, the administration reportedly refused to hold a joint meeting, instead offering class-wise slots.

“We formed a group with subject matter experts, people who understand AC installations, legal policy and finance, so that we could ask the right questions. But the school authorities refused to meet us collectively,” the parent said.

According to the parent, on 3 April, more than 70 parents gathered outside the school, hoping to meet the principal. After waiting for three hours, they were turned away with the excuse that they had come to the “wrong gate”.

The next few days saw scattered, class-wise meetings where only two or three parents were allowed in at a time. Meanwhile, repeated emails requesting a proper forum for discussion have till now received no response, the parents said.

ThePrint reached Birla Vidya Niketan via emails and a response is awaited.

‘Harassment and public shaming’

DPS Dwarka has also been facing intense protests and scrutiny from parents over a “100 percent fee hike since 2021,” which they allege was carried out without approval from the DoE, in violation of the Delhi School Education Rules and land allotment clauses.

Divya Mattey, the parent of a Class 11 student, said the school has demanded Rs 1,89,036 for the 2025-26 session, while only Rs 93,400 was approved by the DoE. “The school has been increasing fee exponentially, without any approval year-on-year,” he told ThePrint.

The parent further alleged “harassment of students” whose parents refused to pay the hiked fees, adding that last year, around 13 students were made to sit in the library and not the classroom, and this year the number has gone up to 19 or 20.

According to him, his son was “not allowed to appear for exams”, was “segregated”, and even “publicly shamed”. “The school published names of students whose parents had not paid the unapproved fee. It was public shaming,” he added.

Further, Mattey alleged “commercialisation of education,” saying the school forces parents to buy overpriced uniforms, notebooks and non-NCERT books, calling NCERT textbooks “substandard”. “They even charge for a swimming pool that has not been functional in 12 years,” he said, accusing the school of siphoning funds.

Mattey explained that despite the harassment, he has continued to keep his child at the school as a matter of principle. “Removing my child would have been easy. But I want him to learn that you don’t walk away from injustice, you fight it,” he said.

Parents have filed several complaints with the DoE, and it has issued multiple orders to the school against fee hikes, including a recent inquiry led by the district magistrate, he said.

He further claimed that the school has defied orders. “The school emailed us on Saturday night saying they will continue the same treatment of our children.”

Gaurav Gupta, parent of a student and vice-chairman of the Parent Teacher Association at The Srijan School, Model Town, told ThePrint that like other schools, The Srijan School issued a fee hike notice, which was not discussed or informed beforehand.

He too said students cannot be segregated based on whether the parents have paid the fees or not. Moreover, he said the parents are only ready to accept the hike if it is approved by the government.

“Stopping the students (from attending classes), taking their names loudly, making them sit in the library, making the nursery students sit at reception is affecting the mental health of students and parents,” he said, adding that it is also deteriorating the basic premise of schooling.

“The situation is such that a nursery class kid is asking his parents if they are poor and if they cannot pay his school fees,” he said, asserting that such schools were creating an inferiority complex among children.

ThePrint reached out to DPS Dwarka through calls and text and The Srijan School through emails but received no response. This report will be updated if a response is received.

Speaking to ThePrint, Aparajitha Gautam, president of Delhi Parents’ Association, said that 80 percent of small schools would hike the fees in small percentages every year, however, the bigger schools increased the fees suddenly last year, and this year again there was a hike. “There has almost been a 60 percent hike in the last two years and the amount is affecting the pockets of parents,” she said.

Gautam too said the schools were violating rules, forcing the parents to come out on the streets and protest. She explained that while Sood said an audit of schools would be held, parents and parent organisations are worried about what to do till the time the audit report is released. “What is the interim relief till then? Should they pay the older fees or the unjustified arbitrary fees that the school is demanding?” she asked, adding that students whose parents did not wish to pay the extra fees were being “harassed”.

“A lot of data is already available. If the government wishes, we can provide them with it. There should be a relief order for the parents. Simultaneously, there should be action against schools who have hiked fee and harassed students,” said Gautam. “And if audits are to be held, either a forensic audit should be held or a CAG audit.”

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)

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