BENGALURU: As many as 7,636 seats of the 17,720 available seats were allocated to beneficiaries under Right to Education act, for free and compulsory education in the state. An automated lottery system decided the beneficiaries. Parents of the selected children were sent an SMS from the Department of Public Instruction. Registration of students will continue till May 15. In order to fill the available slots, including those where parents have failed to register their wards in the first round, a second lottery will be conducted. 

As many as 18,399 applications were registered, of which 5,197 were for Lower Kindergarten, and 13,201 were for Class 1 students. However, only 16,563 of those applications were deemed eligible. This was a huge drop from the number of applicants in the previous year. In 2018-19, around 2.5 lakh students were admitted, from which 1.2 lakh secured admission under RTE. A steady rise in applicants was seen since 2016,  with 97,991 applicants, followed by 2017, where applications rose to 1.09 lakh.

 Commissioner for Public Instruction and the State Project Director for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Reju MT, blames the fall in applications to the amendment.  In a recent amendment to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act 2012, the Karnataka government decided to prioritise government schools and restricted RTE admissions in private schools. Owing to the amendment, the 25 percent that is reserved for RTE in private schools, is restricted to those that do not have a government or aided school in the vicinity. 

Schools eligible for RTE
Unaided    2,617
Aided    15103
Seats available under RTE
Aided schools     2,172
Unaided schools     219