CHENNAI: The number of admissions to government schools in Tamil Nadu have reached around 3.45 lakh as of June 25, as per data from the school education department. While the figure is lower than the little over 4 lakh admissions recorded by end of July last year, officials expect enrolment to rise as admissions stay open until end of July.
According to the department’s data for 2026-27, 2,40,303 students have enrolled in Class 1 so far, including 1,81,761 in Tamil medium and 58,542 in English medium. Another 23,734 have joined kindergarten (LKG and UKG). Around 80,000 children have joined in classes 2 to 11.
Last year, government schools recorded 4,00,364 admissions by July 30, according to the directorate of elementary education. The figure included 32,807 KG admissions, 2,11,563 in Tamil-medium Class 1,63,896 in English-medium Class 1, and 92,098 in classes 2 to 8. Class 1 accounted for nearly 70% of all admissions in both years.
Officials said government school admissions stood at around 3.2 lakh in 2024 before rising to over four lakh in 2025. They said the spike was partly due to the delay in admissions under the 25% quota in private schools mandated by the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
With RTE admissions not taking place initially, many parents enrolled their children in government schools instead. With RTE admissions being conducted on time this year, officials said government school admissions are expected to be slightly lower than last year’s unusually high enrolment.
Meanwhile, a representative of a teachers’ association said, “Though the state has several welfare schemes that benefit children, many parents prefer to enrol their children in private schools due to the shortage of teachers. The government should immediately fill these vacancies.”
