RTE Admissions in Tamil Nadu: Only 16K apply for 35K seats

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu School Education Department’s attempt to fill 25% of seats in unaided non-minority private schools under the RTE Act, 2009, for this academic year, with children already admitted in the entry-level classes of these schools, has hit a roadblock.

Official data show that only 16,707 applications have been received for 34,666 seats in 3,220 private high and higher secondary schools as of October 14, the date on which the list of eligible applicants was originally scheduled to be published.

Meanwhile, 65,306 applications were received for 45,721 seats in private primary schools. In the previous academic year of 2024-25, the department received a total of 1.7 lakh applications under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act.

As a result of the shortfall and a recent Madras High Court order, sources said the department has extended the deadline to complete the RTE admission process from October 17 to October 31.

TN undermined RTE’s purpose by restricting admission to enrolled students, say activists

While the notification for admissions under the RTE Act is usually issued in April, this year the TN government released it only on October 6, over four months after the beginning of the academic year.

The reason cited for the delay was the non-release of Samagra Shiksha funds by the union government.

The centre eventually decided to sanction RTE funds to the state based on a Madras High Court order.

However, as the process had been delayed, the department restricted the RTE quota admissions to children already enrolled in the entry-level class of private schools who meet the criteria.

This meant the enrolled eligible students would apply to be accepted under the RTE quota and get a fee reimbursement.

By restricting the admissions to already enrolled students, the state has undermined the purpose of the RTE Act, which aims to provide underprivileged children access to quality education.

With many schools not even receiving sufficient applications, activists have urged the government to open admissions to all eligible students.

V Easwaran of Marumalarchi Makkal Iyakkam, who had earlier filed a contempt petition in the Madras HC against the TN government for delaying RTE admissions, noted that in most private schools, the entry-level class is LKG, accounting for 80,387 seats, while very few schools offer Class 1 as the entry point.

“Nearly 95% of government schools do not have KG classes, meaning many eligible children are yet to be enrolled in either government or private schools. To ensure that children from economically weaker sections benefit, the admissions must be opened to everyone,” he said.

Easwaran added that he has also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in the HC challenging the restriction of RTE admissions only to children already enrolled in entry-level classes, which is yet to be numbered.

A representative of a private schools association said the state had earlier announced that it would cover the `2,151 crore pending from the centre under the Samagra Shiksha scheme, which also included the RTE component.

“However, the notification was not issued on time this year, and private schools filled the entry-level seats without RTE students. Now the government is asking us to identify eligible students among those already admitted and refund them the amount. We are unsure how this will serve the Act’s purpose,” the representative said.

Officials from the school education department were not available for comments.

The story is reported by Subashini Vijayakumar for The New Indian Express