RTE admission: Gujarat Govt raises income limit for parents from Rs 1.5 lakh per annum to Rs 6 lakh

Free admissions a per the Act will begin from March 16. The decision to revise the income slab criteria for the RTE admission process 2025-26 has greatly relieved children and parents from weaker groups.

Earlier, for the children belonging to category 8 J (daughters whose parents have only one child and that child is only a daughter), category 9 (children studying in government Anganwadi-run by the state government), 11 (children of SC-ST category), 12 (SEBC category), and 13 (general category), the annual income limit for rural areas was Rs 1.2 lakh lpa and Rs 1.5 lakh lpa for urban areas. The recent revision follows an approval received from the Education Department vide letter dated 13/03/2025.

Now, to make sure that maximum number of eligible students benefit from the free admission, applicants with an annual income of Rs 6 lakh or less in both rural and urban areas will be considered eligible to apply for all these categories.

It is worth mentioning that eligible children who would complete six years on June 1, 2025, can apply online on the RTE portal https://rte.orpgujarat.com till April 4. In addition, applicants from other categories and those who could not apply earlier as well as applicants whose applications were rejected at the district level this year due to their parents’ income exceeding the specified limit (but less than Rs 6 lakh lpa) will also be able to apply again.

The process of approving or rejecting the applications after verifying the income limit and other necessary documents of all applicants at the district level will have to be completed by April 16, according to a list provided by Pansheriya and the Director of Primary Education, Gandhinagar.

Pansheriya said, “Those parents whose annual income is Rs 6 lakh or below are entitled to get admission under RTE for their children in 1st standard. Those parents whose annual income was above Rs 1.5 lakh and whose applications were rejected can now apply online for admission of their children till April 15, 2025. Our motive is to help more and more students get good education. The other norms remains the same.”