Day 77 of Chhattisgarh's private school non-cooperation 5,086 RTE seats vacant

RAIPUR, May 16 — Chhattisgarh's private school non-cooperation movement crossed its 77th day on Saturday, with 5,086 of the state's 19,489 Class 1 RTE seats for 2026-27 still vacant two weeks after the first-phase lottery cleared 14,403 admissions. The school education department's admission window closes May 30, leaving 14 working days to fill the gap.

The movement, coordinated by the Chhattisgarh Private School Management Association across roughly 6,800 schools, is the state's longest sustained school-sector agitation since the RTE Act was notified. It began on March 1 with a refusal to process RTE admissions, escalated through black armbands on April 17, a statewide shutdown on April 18, and a 'Gandhian phase' of letters and roses delivered to ministers and MLAs on April 23-24.

The state's response since April has been a recognition-cancellation threat issued by Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, and a Directorate of Public Instruction circular asking District Education Officers to list schools refusing RTE seats. The state's count of vacant Class 1 RTE seats was last updated on May 2. "Schools claiming we can operate at half the budget is not entirely accurate, and making additional demands based on that reasoning is not justified," School Education Minister Gajendra Yadav said on April 9, ruling out a reimbursement revision. The total budget for RTE reimbursement for 2026-27, announced from Mahanadi Bhavan at the April 16 lottery launch, is ₹300 crore against 54,824 sanctioned seats. The math works out to about ₹54,700 per child — well above the ₹7,000-₹7,500 a year that individual schools actually receive. The gap has not been explained.

The same calendar window has seen related state action: an April 25 order capping private school fee hikes at 8 percent and mandating NCERT books for Classes 1-8, and the Supreme Court direction reaffirmed in May that schools cannot deny RTE-allotted admission. Education Minister Yadav has so far described the file as 'under review'.

The next pressure dates: May 23 (court-ordered contempt response in the Bilaspur HC), May 30 (Phase 1 admission window closes), and July 14-15 (second-phase lottery). The state will face all three through a school education secretary's chair that itself just changed hands on May 6.

Source: Indianmasterminds.com, NPG News, Bansal News, INH News.

Related on Inkwelly

For schools tracking RTE compliance:

• Student Information Management — admissions, ID, parent records and 25% RTE seat tracking in one module
• AI Auto-Fill for student admission forms — parse parent-supplied documents into a complete admission form in under two minutes

For the attendance office:

• Chronic Absentee Watchlist (RTE 75%) — every student under the RTE attendance floor, surfaced before parent-teacher meetings

Background reading:

• How to admit a single new student in Inkwelly — the standard admission flow your office runs every month

Earlier in this thread:

• Chhattisgarh wants 3 years of fee records from private schools
• Maharashtra RTE deadline pushed to May 8; final extension