Chennai: With just two days to go to the close of admissions for seats reserved under Right to Education (RTE) Act, over 36,000 students from all over the state sought admission in private schools under this quota as on Tuesday.
The number of applications has doubled in the last two days as compared to previous weeks. On Tuesday alone, more than 4,500 applications were received online, officials said.
To bring the transparency in RTE admissions, the state government has made the entire process online. It also released the number of seats available in each school under this quota.
As per the act, at least 25 per cent of the seats at entry level classes (LKG and class 1) in private schools need to be reserved for children who are hailing from economically and socially disadvantaged sections.
This year 1.26 lakh seats are available under this quota. “We have received 26,587 applications under the economically weaker section. For socially disadvantaged sections 7,672 applications were received,” an official said.
Under the economically weaker section, those who have the annual income less than Rs 2 lakh can apply. For socially disadvantaged sections all communities except OCs are eligible to apply. There’s no income ceiling for this section.
The priority section which includes orphans, kids of scavengers has received 272 applications so far. This section will be given priority during admissions.
Chennai and Madurai districts are way ahead compared to other districts.
Both the districts have received around 3,000 applications followed by Tiruvallur (1,935), Salem (1927) and Coimbatore (1854) districts.
Since the number of applications is on the rise, there is a demand among the parents to extend the last date for applying for RTE admissions. As per the announcement the last date to apply is May 18.
“To collect necessary certificates it took a lot of time. There are thousands of parents who still want to apply. So, the government should extend the last date at least by a week,” a parent said. If the number of seats is less and the applications are more, then the government will follow the lot system for admission.
