Enrolment over, 78,000 seek seats under RTE

In 2020-21, the number of children admitted under RTE was 70,379. This year, the total number of enrolment stands at 82,766. After scrutiny, more than 78,000 children have been found eligible to be admitted under RTE this year, said a senior official from the School Education Department.

“Admission orders were given to about 68,000; the exact figure will emerge once all the students are admitted,” he added. The number of seats available under RTE this year is about 1.07 lakh.

Noting that about 200 schools across the State have received more applications than the available seats, he said a random selection method should be adopted if the eligible applications are more than 25 per cent of intake capacity.

“The applications have been scrutinised to remove multiple enrolment from the same parent. All admission processes were conducted online to ensure transparency,” the official added.

Tiruvallur district has the most number of private schools, 558, and provide the highest number of RTE admissions (a little over 7,000). It is followed by Chennai, which has 438 institutions offering more than 5,000 seats.

The online RTE admissions should have started during June but began only in July due to the pandemic. “A sum of Rs 469.63 crore has been allotted towards reimbursement of fees to the schools for RTE admission in 2020-21,” he added.

The scheme is being implemented in the State since 2013-14 ensuring 25 per cent reservation for students belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in all private, non-minority self-financing schools at entry level such as LKG and Class 1. Till this academic year, more than 7.1 lakh students were admitted to private schools under RTE.