More than 41,000 applications have been received for admission to about 12,000 seats in 80 Jharkhand government-run Schools of Excellence, an official said on Friday.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on May 2 had inaugurated 80 government Schools of Excellence, as part of an academic reform to provide quality English-medium education at par with private schools to children going to government schools.

“Against the total number of 11,986 available seats for admissions to Schools of Excellence (SoEs) more than 41,000 applications have been received across the state by the school managements till May 25, the last date for applications,” the official said.

The number of applications is 345 per cent higher than the total seats.

The maximum number of applications have been received from Deoghar at 4,241, Palamu at 3,524, Ranchi at 2,766, Lohardaga at 2,637 and Chatra at 2,391.

Besides, a total of 1,996 applications were received from East Singhbhum, 1,929 from Saraikela Kharsawan and 1,859 from Hazaribag.

The selection test will be held on May 30 while the first merit list will be published on June 7 and admissions as per the merit list will start from Jun 12.

These 80 district-level Schools of Excellence are part of the government’s aim to provide quality education opportunities to 15 lakh school children studying in government schools including plans to set up 325 block-level schools and 4,091 gram panchayat level model schools across the state in the second-phase.

Last month, at least 10 students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Khunti district, a part of a government project to reduce gender disparities in rural areas and among disadvantaged communities, had qualified in the JEE (Mains).

Online training of Principals of 80 Schools of Excellence has been given by the National Centre for School Leadership in two phases.

The training of Principals of 80 Schools of Excellence has also been completed in two phases by the Azim Premji Foundation.

In January, training was imparted by IIMs for the capacity building of principals.

All students in these 80 Schools of Excellence will be imparted vocational training for 11 trades, the government had earlier announced.

These include Agriculture, IT, ITES, apparel and make-up and home furnishing, media and entertainment, automotive, tourism and hospitality, beauty and wellness, multi-skilling, electronics and hardware, retail and healthcare.