Students' strength in schools run by Greater Chennai Corporation crosss one lakh for the first time in a decade

With close to 20,000 students joining the schools run by the Greater Chennai Corporation this year, the total strength of the schools has crossed 1 lakh for the first time in a decade.

According to Chennai Corporation data, as many as 19,038 students have joined the Corporation schools from private and government-aided schools till July 19.

"Around 98 percent of the new students are from private schools. We are witnessing higher admissions to class 6 and class 11. Among around 20,000 new students, as many as 4,023 students joined in LKG and 1,614 students joined in UKG. As many as 2,306 students joined in class 5 and 1,948 students joined in class 11," a Chennai Corporation official said.

The official explained that most of the students, who have joined class 6 and class 11 are from private schools.

Also, 8,273 students have moved within the Chennai Corporation schools. In total, the 281 schools of the civic body have witnessed 27,311 new admissions. During the previous year, only around 9,000 students joined the Corporation schools from other schools.

Overall, the civic body schools have 1,01,757 students, which is the highest in the last 10 years. The schools run by the Greater Chennai Corporation schools had more than 1 lakh students in 2010-2011 academic year.

The civic body data show that student strength had been declining since the 2009-2010 academic year. In 2009-2010 Corporation schools had a strength of 1.03 lakh students.

The civic body schools have a capacity for more than 1 lakh students and the admission processes are to be continued till August.

As of date, the Corporation schools have 7,097 students in class 10 and 6,030 students in class 12. During the previous year, there were only 5,130 students in class 12.

The civic body runs 281 schools, including 32 higher secondary schools. All these schools are located in core city zones – Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Kodambakkam, Teynampet and Adyar.

Meanwhile, 25 students of the Chennai Corporation schools have scored more than 550 in class 12 board exams and 407 students have scored marks between 501 and 549.

Students strength over years:

2009-2010: 103051

2010-2011: 100320

2011-2012: 95664

2012-2013: 88340

2013-2014: 84131

2014-2015: 83271

2015-2016: 85492

2016-2017: 86903

2017-2018: 84826

2018-2019: 83184

2019-2020: 83098

2020-2021: 88170

2021-2022: 101757