Free education in private schools: Apply from April 20
Tamil Nadu: The Directorate of Private Schools has announced that economically disadvantaged and poor children can apply online for free education in private schools starting April 20th.
Under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 25 percent of seats in private schools will be reserved for poor children. There are 100,000 seats in over 7,000 private schools across the state. Under this scheme, children enrolled in LKG or Class 1 can study for free until Class 8 without paying any fees. Approximately 5.7 lakh children are currently studying in private schools in Tamil Nadu under the RTE scheme, which was implemented in 2013. Therefore, online application registration for free student scholarships for the upcoming academic year (2026-2027) will be open from April 20th to May 18th.
The Directorate of Private Schools has issued a notification for this. According to this, students who do not have minority status under the RTE scheme will be able to receive free education in all private nursery, primary, matriculation, ICSE, and CBSE schools. Under this scheme, students from backward classes and economically weaker sections should apply.
According to this, applications from backward classes, such as destitute, HIV-positive, transgender, disabled, and children of sanitation workers, will be selected on a priority basis without any lottery. The annual income of backward classes must be less than ₹2 lakh. Applicants must submit income, residence, and caste certificates.
Parents can then apply through the website rte.tnschools.gov.in. A parent can apply to a maximum of five schools near their location. The notification states that if the school receives more applications than the allotted number of students, students will be selected through an open lottery.
