Ambiguity in rules may lead to delay in undergraduate admissions, fear colleges

Even though the confusion surrounding the Class 12 results were recently cleared by respective school education boards, the students still have little or no clarity on admissions to first-year undergraduate (UG) courses

Even though the confusion surrounding the Class 12 results were recently cleared by respective school education boards, the students still have little or no clarity on admissions to first-year undergraduate (UG) courses. While admissions to undergraduate professional courses depend on entrance exams conducted by the state and national exam authorities, admissions to UG courses in degree colleges depend solely on Class 12 marks, which are yet to be announced by most education boards.

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“To bring parity during admissions, the state has announced that admissions to first-year junior college (FYJC) will be based on a common entrance test (CET) and not just the Class 10 marks. Class 12 marks are also being derived based on a formula, however, degree colleges are still unclear about admission rules. Will we be considering only the Class 12 marks, or will colleges hold entrance exams as well?” asked Anju Kapoor, principal of UPG College, Vile Parle.

Last year, admissions to UG first-year courses started in September and their academic year commenced in the last week of October.

Admissions to undergraduate professional courses like medical, engineering, pharmacy, architecture and law are conducted based on an entrance exam, most of which are scheduled to take place in August this year. Admissions to UG degree courses, however, for years have been based on the Class 12 scores only. This year, since the Class 12 scores will be based on students’ performance in the last three academic years, many fear students might demand a chance to appear for written examinations to better their scores.

In a public event held in Nagpur on Friday, the state minister for higher and technical education Uday Samant said that admission criteria for Class 12 students aiming for non-technical courses will only be decided after the announcement of Class 12 results. “The decision to conduct an entrance exam or conduct admissions based on Class 12 marks will be taken only once the results are announced,” said Samant. Students, however, are unsure that results for Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams will be announced anytime soon.

Several college principals share the fear that with no clear admission policy in place at present, the delay will directly reflect on first-year students’ academic year. “In July we still don’t know what degree college admissions will be based on. If we go by the state government’s word, Class 12 results should be announced by July 31, following which, the government plans to announce admission criteria. This means the first year UG students will not make it to their classrooms before the first week of October,” said the principal of a college in central Mumbai. He added that once again this delay will have to be a burden shared by students and teachers who will have to work extra hours to ensure that the entire year’s portion is completed in half the time allotted for the same.

This year, Covid-19 pushed all education boards to rethink their decision of conducting board exams at a time when the country was grappling with a deadly second wave. Scrapping of exams and grading students on a formula giving weightage to students’ performance of past three years was unanimously accepted. The approved mechanism for Maharashtra state board and CBSE Class 12 students includes a 30:30:40 formula, which gives equal weightage of 30% each to results of Class 10 and 11 and 40% weightage to a student’s overall performance in Class 12. In the case of CISCE, the formula will take into consideration the Class 10 ICSE board exam results, project and practical work in subjects, and best marks obtained in school exams in Class 11 and 12.