Details of vacant seats under Right to Education Act may go online soon

Parents can approach schools for admission

Officials of the School Education Department said here on Tuesday that details of vacant seats set aside for admission under the Right to Education (RTE) Act might be made available online.

“We are still waiting for an official announcement. The coordination process and uploading will be carried out in a centralised process at the Directorate of Education in Chennai. By releasing it online, the information will be made more accessible to parents and they can seek admission in schools which still have vacant RTE seats,” an official said.

At present, the School Education Department website only has a detailed list of matriculation schools with the number of seats earmarked under the RTE Act, against the total number of seats.

Under the RTE Act, private schools have to set aside 25 per cent of their seats for children from underprivileged background, whose family’s annual income is less than Rs 2 lakh.

In Madurai, 967 seats are lying vacant across 148 private matriculation schools in the district.

In a bid to keep the public informed about the number of seats vacant under the RTE Act, a list of vacancies as of July 24 has been kept on display at the office of the Inspector of Matriculation Schools here.

“We update the list every 10 days and keep it on display so that the public are aware of the schools they can approach. When compared to last year, the number of admissions under the RTE is higher this year.

Despite the academic year having already begun, parents can still approach the schools if they want admission under RTE,” said M. Govindarajan, Inspector of Matriculation Schools.

Mr. Govindarajan further said that the number of seats vacant in a few schools was high because the public chose to apply for admission under the RTE in only a few schools.

The move to publish the details of vacant seats online is seen as a positive sign.

A few outfits, including the Tamil Puligal, had earlier alleged discrepancies in the filling up of seats under the RTE Act in the district and submitted petitions to the Collector.