Tamil Nadu government schools enroll over 3.12 lakh students so far; state aims for 4.5 lakh in Class 1

More than 3 lakh students have enrolled in government and government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu as of Tuesday, the Directorate of Elementary Education said. Chennai recorded the highest number of 17,985 enrollments, while the Nilgiris had the lowest.

The Tamil Nadu Elementary School Education Department conducts the admission process for kindergarten (KG), and Class 1 in both Tamil and English medium. As of June 17, 22,757 students were admitted to KG, 1,72,676 to Class 1 Tamil medium, and 54,057 to Class 1 English medium. There are 31,336 schools in Tamil Nadu, according to the official website.

A total of 65,391 students were admitted to Classes 2 to 8, and the total enrollment reached 3,12,881 as of Tuesday.

The state aims to enroll 4.5 lakh students in Class 1 this year. The decision was made following a decline in enrollment numbers for the 2024–25 academic year. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2024), the percentage of children aged 6–14 enrolled in government schools was 67.4% in 2018, which rose to 75.7% in 2022, but fell again to 68.7% in 2024.

Tamil Nadu government schools showed significant improvement in reading and arithmetic skills in Class 3, with over a 15-percentage point increase. However, school education minister Anbil Mahesh reportedly expressed concerns about the ASER report and said that the state will conduct its own educational survey covering 10 lakh students.

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Tamil Nadu school enrollment 2025

The data on new enrollments from March 1 to June 17 in Tamil Nadu government schools has been published by the state government.