The RTE is being implemented in the State from 2013-14 effecting 25 per cent reservation for students belonging to the disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in all private non-minority self-financing schools at entry level such as LKG and Class one. Also, to ensure transparency, the State government has made RTE admissions online from 2017-18.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that this year the RTE online admissions should have started on May 3. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic situation, the online enrolment began only on August 27.

“In 20 days, more than 70,000 online applications seeking RTE admissions were received,” he said and added: “There is one more week left. The applications are expected to touch one lakh since many schools have just started the RTE admission process”.

The official also pointed out that Tiruvallur district has the most number of 565 private schools, which provide the highest number of 7,075 RTE admissions, followed by Kancheepuram, which has 504 institutions offering 6,245 seats. In Chennai, a total of 462 private schools have 5,533 RTE seats. “All the applications will be scrutinised to remove multiple applications from a single parent. After scrutiny, the list will be released on October 3,” he said.

The official said if the number of eligible applicants is more than the intake capacity of a particular school, a random selection method would be adopted in the presence of an officer deputed by the Chief Educational Officer of the district concerned.

“After the random selection, the remaining applications will be admitted in other nearby schools, which got fewer enrolments against the intake capacity,” he added.

Pointing out that in 2019-20 the number of RTE admissions across the State stood at 76,927, which was higher than the previous year’s figure of 64,385, the official claimed that in 2020-2021 the enrolment is expected to touch one lakh due to the financial crisis brought about by COVID-19 lockdown. According to the official, the government has so far reimbursed a sum of Rs 644.69 crore to the private schools and 5,60,829 children have been admitted under RTE from 2013 to 2019.