Private schools all set to enrol RTE students on Oct 30

CHENNAI: With the Right to Education (RTE) admissions wrapping up across the State, private schools are gearing up for admissions for October 30.

All eligible candidates will be admitted on October 30, where the available seats and children enrolled are the same.

The next day, however, schools that have fewer seats and number of children exceeding those seats will draw lots to confirm their seats.

Meanwhile, as per the data released by the School Education Department, 81,927 students have applied for pre-school seats and 89 students for Class 1 as per the RTE Act’s 25% seat allocation. However, over 7,000 private schools have registered to offer 25% seats to students belonging to oppressed communities.

A member of the private school association said, “Admissions were delayed this year after the Union government withheld the rightful funds meant for the State to implement RTE. Hence, we’ll be enrolling students only now. We have to catch up on the time lost and equip them promptly.”

After much delay, RTE admission for 2025-26 academic year began only on October 9 for students in entry-level classes from LKG to Class 1 as per the directions of the Supreme Court and Madras High Court. Simultaneously, the Union government also released Rs 700 crore funds under Samagra Shiksha.

Though RTE admissions are usually held from mid-April till May, for this academic year 2025-26, it began only in October.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of School Education has rolled out guidelines for timely submission of proposals from teachers and non-teaching staff in government and government aided schools seeking permission to travel abroad. The guidelines were implemented after unnecessary delays were reported in processing the proposals.