- विज्ञापन -
Gandhinagar: The initial round of admissions under Gujarat’s Right to Education (RTE) Act has concluded, leaving 13,384 seats empty in private schools across the state, officials said. The process, which grants free entry to Class 1 students under a 25% RTE quota, saw 86,274 seats allocated initially, but only 80,378 confirmations were received by parents by the May 8 deadline.
This year’s RTE application process attracted a notable response, with 2,38,916 online applications—significantly higher than previous years. Officials believe the rise is mainly due to the increase in the income eligibility limit, which has been raised uniformly to Rs 6 lakh for both urban and rural families. Previously, the cutoff was Rs 1.5 lakh for urban families and Rs 1.2 lakh for rural applicants, which likely expanded the applicant pool by around 45,000.
Out of all applications, 1,75,685 were approved at the district level after verification, while 13,761 were rejected and 49,470 were cancelled due to reasons such as duplicate applications or documentation issues.
This year, a total of 93,860 seats across 9,741 private schools were notified under the RTE quota. The first round of seat allotments, completed on April 28, was based on parental preferences, reservation categories, and merit. However, 7,586 seats remained unallotted because no parents selected those schools. A second phase of admissions is expected soon to fill these vacant seats, with officials optimistic that more eligible children will participate and fill the remaining vacancies.
The Gujarat RTE Act ensures free admission to children from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds in private unaided schools. The process, governed by Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE Act, involves an online centralized admission system every year for Class 1 entry.
