CHENNAI: This year, the government has received 91,885 applications against 82,000 seats reserved under the Right to Education Act, till April 28. As parents can apply till May 18, officials at the directorate of private schools said they are expecting at least another one lakh applications.
Meanwhile, government schools in the state have managed to give out 68,000 applications since the special enrolment drive by the school education department that began on April 17. Krishnagiri district tops the list with 4,000 applications given out.
“We started the enrolment drive as we wanted to give teachers enough time to engage with parents and ensure more students join government schools,” said elementary education department officials.
Under the RTE Act, 25 per cent of seats in entry-level classes in private schools are reserved for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. There are nearly one lakh seats in more than 8,000 private schools in the state reserved for these students.
For children born between August 1, 2019, and July 31, 2020, parents can apply for LKG admissions while it is between August 1, 2017, and July 31, 2018, for Class 1 admissions. There are only around 20 schools in the state that have Class 1 as entry-level, said officials.
The parents can apply for private schools within one kilometre of their residence. The list of approved applications will be published on May 21 and lotteries will be held on May 24 if there are more applications than the available seats and the final list of the selected students will be released on May 29, said the officials.