After changes in the RTE admission process, the registration process has started early… What is the response from parents?

Pune, 17th April 2024: Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the admission registration process has begun. Within the first two days, more than 7,200 applications have been received and parents have until April 30th to fill out the application. This is the first admission process after the state government made changes to the RTE admission process, making it crucial to gauge parents’ reactions to these changes.

Under the RTE, 25% reserved seats are allocated to students from disadvantaged, weaker and socially and educationally backward sections. The Education Department has made significant changes to the RTE admission process. According to these changes, students will be admitted to schools within a radius of one kilometer from their residence, prioritizing aided schools, government schools and local authority schools. If these schools are not available, admission will be provided to special schools with financial aid. Parents will be given priority based on the selection of aided schools, government schools, local authority schools and then financial aid schools, as clarified by the Education Department earlier. Due to these changes, there has been a delay in starting the RTE admission process. The application process started from April 16th.

According to information on the RTE admission portal, there are 8,86,242 seats available for admission in 76,442 schools across the state. Last year, more applications were received than the available seats in just the special schools under RTE. Therefore, with the changed admission process prioritizing aided schools, government schools and local authority schools, it remains to be seen how parents respond to this and how many applications will be received. This change has created anticipation among parents regarding the number of applications and the priority given to different types of schools under the new RTE admission process.