Maharashtra: CET unfair, say parents; Bombay HC to hear plea today

The parents have questioned the Maharashtra state board’s decision to conduct a common entrance test (CET) for all FYJC aspirants based solely on the state board syllabus

The parents of students from the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board are a worried lot as the Bombay high court (HC) will hear the plea of thousands of non-state board students aiming for first-year junior college (FYJC) seats, today (July 6). The parents have questioned the Maharashtra state board’s decision to conduct a common entrance test (CET) for all FYJC aspirants based solely on the state board syllabus and have also raised concerns over its decision to hold a physical entrance exam for 15 and 16-year-old students amid the pandemic.

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“The Maharashtra state board has argued that majority students are in favour of the CET exam, but they are going by the registration figures where 10 lakh state board students have registered for the CET, compared to less than 35,000 non-state board students. Most ICSE and CBSE students have decided to forgo a seat in the first common admission round to avoid the stress of an entrance exam, and that is not fair,” said a parent of an ICSE student. He added that only those ICSE students scared of losing a seat in a good college have registered for the test to have a good chance during seat allotment.

This year, Class 10 board exams across several school education boards had to be scrapped due to rising Covid-19 cases. Results for the Class 10 batch was instead based on students’ performance in Class 9 and 10 combined. According to a circular released by the state board last month, an optional CET will be held based on the Maharashtra state board’s Class 10 syllabus. Priority will be given to students who appear for this exam in the first seat allotment list for FYJC seats. It will be a 100 marks multiple-choice question format exam held over two hours. The exam will have questions from seven different subjects including English, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences, each carrying 25% weightage in the test and students need to attempt only four papers out of these.

While the HC had asked heads of ICSE, CBSE and IGCSE boards to submit question banks to the state board, parents are still hopeful that the court on Friday scraps the CET exam altogether.