Tamil Nadu: 1.57 lakh school students shortlisted for admissions under RTE Act for 2024-25

CHENNAI: Under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) Act 2009, the Directorate of Matriculation Schools has shortlisted 1.57 lakh applications for the academic year 2024-25 from across the State.

Under the Act that came into effect in April 2010, provisions were made to reserve 25 per cent seats to students from impoverished backgrounds from classes 1 to 8. The Act enables free and compulsory education till the completion of class 8.

For the new academic year, the government announced that there were 84,765 seats in the State. Registration for these seats was conducted from April 22 till May 20.

After closing the registration, the Directorate of Matriculation Schools also held scrutiny of the applications on May 27. As far as department officials, the scrutiny process underwent the separation between ineligible candidates and applications with missing documents.

For the new year, the department has received 1.74 lakh applications for the 84,765 seats in all the State private and matriculation schools. However, under scrutiny, the department has confirmed seats to 1.57 lakh applicants.

Following this on May 28, the department also confirmed the seats for the applicants by sending One Time Password (OTP) to the parent’s contact number. “The parents of the students who have received OTP numbers should visit the respective schools before June 3 and confirm the admission with the school principal,” stated the circular.

The circular from the department further clarified that the name list of the selected students has been stuck on the respective school notice board.

Meanwhile, the Director of Matriculation Schools in March announced Rs 383.59 crore as reimbursement to private schools for admitting students under RTE for the academic year 2022-2023. This compensation is paid for admitting 4.17 lakh students across the private schools of Tamil Nadu.