India, April 2 --  Mumbai has recorded a significant drop in applications under the Right to Education (RTE) Act this year, despite an increase in seats. The city received only 10,397 applications for the academic year 2026-27, compared to 13,166 last year, showing a decline of around 2,700 applications.

A similar trend has been observed across Maharashtra - a total of 2,89,591 applications have been received this year, which is around 15,000 less than last year's 3,05,151. Incidentally, the decline has come despite an increase in the number of schools and available seats this year. In the 2026-27 academic year, 8,701 schools are offering 1,14,826 seats, compared to 8,086 schools with 1,09,102 seats last year.

The reason for the d...