17,000 RTE Seats Remain Vacant Statewide Despite Five Deadline Extensions

Mumbai: The admission process under the Right to Education (RTE) Act for the 25% reserved seats in private unaided schools across Maharashtra has finally drawn to a close. Despite extending the deadline five times and granting admissions in phases to students on the waiting list, approximately 17,000 seats have remained vacant across the state this year. Altogether, 16,197 students secured their admissions under the quota this year, marking an increase of nearly 8,000 admitted students compared to the previous year.

Across 8,701 participating schools statewide, a total of 1,14,826 seats were available under the RTE quota, for which the education department received 2,89,286 applications. Initially, the department revised admission rules to mandate that students apply only to schools within a 1 km radius of their homes. However, this decision was challenged in court, and following a judicial order, the 1 km restriction was struck down to reopen applications for schools within a 3 km radius. This re-registration process significantly delayed the overall schedule.

A total of 1,05,811 students were selected in the initial online lottery draw, with 79,367 securing admission during the regular selection round. To fill the remaining vacant seats, students on the waiting list were offered admission opportunities across four subsequent phases, resulting in 12,876 admissions in the first waitlist phase, 3,283 in the second, 1,032 in the third, and 431 in the fourth phase before the process officially concluded on July 31.

Across various districts, confirmed admissions stood at 16,758 in Pune, 9,315 in Thane, 6,274 in Nagpur, 4,929 in Nashik, 4,444 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, 3,405 in Ahilyanagar, 901 in Washim, 832 in Bhandara, 603 in Ratnagiri, 482 in Gadchiroli, 328 in Nandurbar, and 131 in Sindhudurg. Primary Education Director Sharad Gosavi stated that the RTE admission process concluded after granting five deadline extensions and noted that planning for next year’s admission process will be executed even earlier.