Salem, Vellore districts top in RTE admissions

Chennai: The semi-urban districts Salem and Vellore have outperformed urban districts like Chennai and Coimbatore in admitting more students under Right to Education Act this year.

Due to fair and transparent admission process introduced by department of school education this year, 95,858 were admitted in private schools under Right to Education Act after three rounds of admission.

As per the act, private schools should reserve 25 per cent of their total intake seats in entry classes to the children hailing from economically and socially backward classes.

To conduct admission process in a fair manner the state government introduced online admission process. This time the officials had given wide publicity through various measures including erecting banners in public places.

The awareness has resulted in tremendous response from parents from semi-urban and rural areas. Salem with 5,331 students topped the list and was closely followed by Vellore.

Apart from Chennai(4,991), Kancheepuram (4,572) and Coimbatore(4,676) districts, this year more admissions were made in Cuddalore (4,226), Villupuram(4,026) and Tiruvannamalai (3549) districts. Madurai (4,518) and Tirunelveli (3,967) districts also had more admissions this year. This year the admission was conducted in three spells. “In the first round,  parents have faced many issues due to the online admission. They got used to it in next two rounds,” officials said. Though the numbers are not higher than  last year, it is still a significant as the government itself verified all the admissions made this year.

“The school education department has made a sincere effort this year. The awareness and parental aspirations are main reason for high admissions in semi-urban districts,” said Aruna Ratnam, education specialist, Unicef.
“English medium is one of the major attractions. Furniture and attention given to students also make a difference,” she said.

Government primary and middle schools also started English medium sections. But the teachers are yet to be fully equipped to teach in English, she added. Some educationists also fear that high number of RTE admissions will result in weakening of government schools.

“The government should have asked the question why the students are not interested in joining the neighbourhood government school before helping them to get admission in private schools. It should try to attract the students towards government schools  instead of weakening them,” said P.B.Prince Gajendrababu, educationist and general secretary, State Platform for Common School System.

The government should start the feeder classes like LKG and UKG in government primary and middle schools, he urged.