RTE reservation: Over 86,000 students allotted seats in 9,741 private schools after first round of admissions

Indian Express

28-04-2025

At the end of the first round of admissions for 25 per cent reserved seats under the Right to Education Act (RTE), 86,274 students were allotted seats against the total available seats of 93,860 in 9,741 private schools in Gujarat.
As many as 7,586 reserved seats are vacant after the end of first round of seat allotment. Parents have to confirm their admissions by May 7 by submitting required documents at the schools allotted for their children.
Of the 86,274 seats, while the maximum number has been alloted to 32,267 children from Anganwadi centres in the state, children from SEBC/OBC categories have been alloted 18,383 seats.
On March 15, for the admission for academic session 2025-26, Minister of State for Education Praful Pansheriya had announced an increase in the income limit for admission under the RTE Act to Rs 6 lakh per annum from Rs 1.5 lakh per annum for beneficiaries — the new limit being applicable for both rural and urban sectors. With this announcement, the state government had also extended the deadline for applications to April 15 from March 16.
Of the 2,38,916 applications received, 45,993 (nearly 50 per cent of the total available seats) were received after the state government increased the income limit for children under the RTE Act, mandating a reservation of 25 per cent seats.
As per details shared by the Education Department on Monday, 48,490 children have been allotted seats in Gujarati medium schools, followed by 36,861 in English medium private schools in the state. While 748 children were alloted seats in Hindi medium schools, 117 in Marathi medium, 40 in Odiya and 18 got seats in Urdu medium private schools.
Of the total seats available across 33 districts and seven cities, the highest number of seats are in Surat city (15,239), followed by Ahmedabad city (14,778), Vadodara city (4,846), Rajkot city (4,445) and Surat city (3,913).