The picking of lots for admission of students under Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, was held in 368 private matriculation and elementary schools in the district on Thursday where the number of applicants received was more than the quota allowed for each school.
The RTE Act mandates private schools to set aside 25% of their entry-level seats for students from economically weaker sections of the society.
According to officials from the School Education department, the district has 5,752 seats reserved under RTE Act in 159 matriculation and 284 nursery and primary schools. Through the online system of application that was held from August 27 to September 25, 5,953 applications were received for these seats. Out of them, 4,984 applications were deemed eligible.
Chief Educational Officer R. Swaminathan said separate monitoring teams were formed to ensure that admissions were done as per stipulated procedures. A separate list of candidates for the waiting list were also selected.
Though the process was largely complaint-free, a section of parents and activists raised their grievance of schools rejecting applications of candidates whose residences were outside one-km radius from the school.
P. Muthulakshmi, a resident of Bharathiyar Nagar near Pillar Salai, said a private school in Nagamalai Pudukottai had rejected her application as her residence was located around 1.5 km away from the school.
R. Charles, a volunteer who assisted parents in the online application for RTE Act seats, said there were several complaints across the district of schools rejecting applications due to the violation of the one-km norm. “But all these parents faced no issues when they filed the online applications they entered their address on Google Maps and chose schools that were near home. This contradiction of the one-km norm between the Google Maps and the management of schools is a major point of concern,” he said.