Telangana Model Schools hit by steep drop in admissions, 50k seats vacant
Telangana’s 194 Model Schools recorded 50,718 vacancies for 2025-26, with MEC and CEC intermediate streams witnessing the lowest demand. Officials cite stream choice, late entry-level admissions, and remote locations as key reasons for the steep drop in enrolments.
Hyderabad: The Telangana Model Schools, once considered the face of English medium education in the government sector, are grappling with a dip in admissions.
Across the State, 194 Model Schools have recorded 50,718 vacancies during the academic year 2025-26. Out of 1.59 lakh seats available in all Classes VI to XII, only around 1.10 lakh students took admissions. This is a significant drop from the average 1.30 lakh admissions in these schools in previous years.
Of the total vacancies, 7,680 vacant seats are in Class VI, which is the entry level for admission to Model Schools in the State. Further, nearly 15,000 seats alone are vacant in the intermediate MEC stream.
One of the reasons for the high number of vacancies is continuation of less demand streams like MEC and CEC streams at the intermediate level.
Despite the demand for science streams like MPC and BiPC, the Model Schools continue to offer low-demand streams such as MEC and CEC streams.
Students aiming to pursue JEE and NEET are opting for MPC and BiPC programmes, leaving a large number of seats in MEC and CEC streams vacant.
Another factor that can be attributed to vacancies is the entry level of admissions. While the welfare residential schools are admitting students at the Class V, the Model Schools enroll students at the Class VI, which is the entry level. Only students who failed to get an admission into the welfare residential schools have been opting for the Model Schools, ZP and government schools in the State.
Commuting to the schools, which are located in remote areas, without proper public transport facilities is another factor for drop in admissions.
“Every year we see an average of 1.30 lakh admissions but this time it has come down to 1.10 lakh. Students are not keen on joining the MEC programme and that’s the reason more vacancies have been recorded this time. We will write to the government to convert the less demand streams to MPC or BiPC,” said official sources in the School Education department.
Dire situation
Model Schools: 194
Vacancies
Total vacancies: 50,718
Class VI: 7,680
Class VII: 5,485
Class VIII: 4,079
Class IX: 3,139
Class X: 3,286
Intermediate first year
MPC: 1,764
BiPC: 1,820
MEC: 7,469
CEC: 1,966
Intermediate second year
MPC: 1,783
BiPC: 2,292
MEC: 7,441
CEC: 2,514
