The Directorate of Matriculation Schools has received 48,487 applications for admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 as of Tuesday evening, for the coming academic year.

Under the RTE Act, private schools need to set aside 25% of their entry-level seats for students from economically weaker sections of society. This year, Tamil Nadu has taken the application process under the Act completely online and has launched a dedicated portal at www.rte.tnschools.gov.in.

On Tuesday, Vellore received 3,656 applications online — the highest in the State — followed by Madurai with 3,639 applications.

Chennai has received 3,469 applications so far. A total of 1.21 lakh seats from private schools are available this year under the RTE Act.

Simplified process

“In a bid to simplify the online process, we ensured that the portal has clear video instructions as well for parents. Parents can go to the district education offices if they have any queries about the process and they will help facilitate the application process as well,” said S. Kannappan, Director of Matriculation Schools. He said that while the online portal had received an average of 6,000 applications every day since the applications opened on April 22, the numbers would in crease in the coming week.

Ahead of the application process, schools had been instructed to display the number of seats available prominently outside as well as on their school campuses for parents to be aware of the RTE admissions.

While a majority of the CBSE schools in the State completed the admission process under the RTE Act much earlier, it was decided to include their seats in the online portal from this year as well. However, several CBSE schools are yet to find a place on the portal.

“District-level officials are currently working on consolidating the seats available in the CBSE schools. These details will be uploaded online soon,” an official from the education department said. The online admission process is scheduled to go on till May 18.