Chhattisgarh has allowed children from economically weaker and disadvantaged families living beyond prescribed neighbourhood limits to compete for vacant seats under the Right to Education Act’s mandatory 25% quota in private schools. The change means distance will determine priority, not eligibility, when seats remain unfilled after nearby applicants have been considered.
The school education department issued the clarification on November 10 and directed district collectors and district education officers to implement the revised approach. Private schools will not need separate approval from the competent authority to admit eligible children from outside the prescribed radius against vacant RTE seats.
The existing distance priorities have not been changed. For Classes I to V, children living within 1km of a school will continue to receive first preference. For Classes VI to VIII, priority will remain with applicants residing within 3km. Only after eligible applications from those areas have been considered can vacant seats be offered to children living farther away.
The department’s decision addresses cases in which schools have reserved seats available but do not receive enough eligible applications from within the specified neighbourhood. For example, if a private school has 25 seats under the RTE quota but receives only 15 eligible applications within the applicable radius, the remaining 10 seats can now be offered to eligible children from farther locations.
If applications exceed the number of available reserved seats, selection will be conducted through a lottery, according to the clarification. The detailed procedure will be governed by the admission guidelines. The department has also asked authorities to simplify the reimbursement process for schools under Section 12(2) of the RTE Act.
Section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act, 2009, requires specified private schools to reserve 25% of entry-level seats for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged sections. The neighbourhood condition had earlier been treated as a mandatory eligibility requirement under the admission process, which meant that children living beyond the prescribed radius could not be considered even when reserved seats remained vacant.
The revised policy is intended to improve the utilisation of reserved seats, particularly for children living in localities where private schools are located beyond the existing distance limits. According to the state government, the changes follow suggestions from the Union education ministry and Supreme Court directions concerning access to education for disadvantaged children.
The state’s new approach therefore preserves proximity as the first filter while creating a wider pool of eligible applicants when seats cannot be filled locally. District collectors and district education officers will oversee implementation, including the application of the admission guidelines and the lottery process where demand exceeds available RTE seats.
