Chennai (Tamil Nadu): The number of seats allotted under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) for poor students to study in private schools has witnessed a drastic decline every year, as per a report. Under the RTE Act, 25 percent of total seats are allotted to Primary Class in private schools on a yearly basis.
In this scenario, the total number of seats allotted via RTE Act during 2019 was 1,24,859. In 2020, these seats reduced to 1,15,771 and has further dropped to 1,07,992 in the current year.
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In 2019, 1,13,068 applications were received for 1,24,859 seats and 76,927 seats were filled. Then in the year 2020, a total of 2,13,368 applications were received for 1,15,771 seats and 70,440 seats were filled. Meanwhile, this year around 53,328 applications were received for 1,07,992 seats, from 5th to 28th July. Students still have time till 3rd August to apply under this scheme.
According to sources, the reason for the decline in seat allocation in private schools is due to 'unaccredited schools having been denied admission under the act and also total number of seats allotted to primary classes being reduced due to less number of admissions'.
