Enrolment up in govt schools this year, southern districts lead the table

The ongoing coronavirus crisis seems to have turned the tide for government schools as admissions in private schools across the state continue to look sluggish. Many parents, who had pay cuts due to lockdown are looking up to government schools as they could not afford the fees for their children to study in self-financing institutions.

 As per the usual schedule, the admission process commences from June. However, it was postponed indefinitely this year due to COVID-19 pandemic.

 A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next on Friday that admissions in the government schools has witnessed more increase in southern districts of the state.

 According to the provisional data given by the official, the number of admissions crossed more than 10,000 in more than 10 districts with Thoothukudi admitting more than 15,000 students in government schools.

 “Other districts that witnessed high admissions (more than 10,000) in the state-run schools include Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Ramanathapuram, and Sivaganga,” he said adding “going by the trend, we expect that the admissions to the government schools will be increased by 15 per cent this academic year.”

 Tamil Nadu Teachers Association president PK Ilamaran also said that with the Madras High Court ruling on the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) quota, there would be a huge demand in the admissions to the government school this academic year, especially for Class 11.

 Referring to the data, Ilamaran said that a government high school in Karikudi taluk was forced to reject at least 500 admissions since they had an intake capacity of just 200 this year. “Likewise, many government schools even in cities received more applications than the intake,” he said.

 DC Elangovan, secretary of the Federation of Associations of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu, maintained that except for few institutions in the cities, admissions in private schools did not take off as expected.

 “It is because of the parents who had a pay cut, could not offer to remit school fees,” he reasoned. At present, there are about 45,000 government and government-aided schools besides about 13,000 private schools from primary to higher secondary level were functioning in the state to cater education to more than 1.3 crore students.