School admission in pandemic times: Bane for pvt, boon for government

At present, there are about 37,400 government schools and 8,300 government-aided schools in the State, catering to more than 66 lakh students. This year, the new admissions in the State-run schools saw an alltime high since many parents, who suffered financial loss due to COVID-19 lockdown, admitted their children in government and government-aided schools. Authorities in the School Education Department too rose to the occasion and relaxed norms to enrol such students.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that students were admitted by merely getting their Aadhaar cards since most of the private school refused to give Transfer Certificate (TC) to the children. “Government measures to give spot admission for the students at their doorsteps yielded good results,” he said.

“Also, State’s decision to allocate 7.5 per cent internal reservation in NEET to government schools made parents send their children to State-run schools,” he added.

According to information given by the official, about five lakh new admissions have been registered so far with 2.8 lakh students joining Class 1 alone.

Claiming that of the total new admissions, over 2.2 children were enrolled in government schools to study in Class 6, Class 9, Class 10, and Class 11, the official said: “It is also estimated that 25,000 students, who studied in private CBSE schools, also got admitted in government institutions.”

“Still a couple of weeks are left for the last date of admissions,” he said, adding that another 50,000 new students are expected to be enrolled during this period.

Tamil Nadu Teachers Association president PK Ilamaran said the government should ensure retaining all the new admissions by improving the infrastructure of the schools on a par with private institutions.

“It is really hardwork of many government teachers, who were responsible for enrolling thousands of children through spot admissions,” he said.