Gujarat sees rise in RTE applications after increasing income limit

Ahmedabad: A total of 2,37,317 applications were submitted for admissions to the Right to Education (RTE) seats in private schools after the Gujarat govt increased the income limit and extended the deadline, which concluded on Tuesday.
Initially, the income limit for eligibility under RTE was Rs 1.5 lakh per annum, but it was raised to Rs 6 lakh in March, leading to an additional 44,994 applications. The admission process, including document verification and approval, will now proceed, with the first round of seat allotments scheduled for April 28.
According to officials, RTE admissions for Class 1 in private schools began on Feb 28, with an original deadline of March 12. A total of 93,527 seats, representing 25% of seats in participating schools, are available under the scheme. After the initial deadline, verification and approval or rejection of submitted forms were completed by March 13, and the first allotment round was originally planned for March 27.
However, following the increase in the income eligibility limit, the online portal was reopened, and the extended deadline concluded on April 9. Now, district-level officials will complete the approval and rejection process for the newly submitted forms by Wednesday.
Applicants whose forms are rejected will be given until April 23 to submit any missing documents. Following this, the final list will be prepared, and the first round of admission allotment will be conducted on April 28.
In comparison to last year, when around 2.35 lakh forms were submitted for 45,000 RTE seats across the state, this year has seen an increase of nearly 1,930 applications, signalling a strong response to the revised income criteria.