Officials expect over 1 lakh students to apply this academic year Share Via Email | A+A A- By Express News Service CHENNAI: Almost 12,500 candidates from Tamil Nadu have applied for admission under the Right to Education (RTE) Act as of Tuesday evening, a day after the online application portal was opened. A senior official from the State School Education Department told Express, “We have received around 12,400 applications so far and we expect over a lakh students to apply this academic year.” There are over 1.15 lakh seats in the 8,615 private matriculation schools in the State. Last year, a total of 86,362 candidates had applied while about 70,000 eligible students were allotted seats under the Act.