SSC results to be declared by mid-July; entrance exam for junior college admissions by July-end: GR

Results of the Senior Secondary Certificate (SSC) examinations will be announced by July 15, and an optional physical entrance exam for first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions will be conducted by July-end or August first week, stated a government resolution (GR) released on Thursday

Results of the Senior Secondary Certificate (SSC) examinations will be announced by July 15, and an optional physical entrance exam for first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions will be conducted by July-end or August first week, stated a government resolution (GR) released on Thursday.

HT Image

The notification comes nearly a month after the state school education minister Varsha Gaikwad said that admissions to FYJC will be based on a common entrance test (CET).

According to GR, an optional CET exam will be conducted based on the Class 10 syllabus and comprising multiple-choice questions (MCQs) for 100 marks. This exam will be first open to FYJC aspirants from all school board. Those who don’t want to opt for the physical entrance exam will be marked according to their performance in the internal assessment of Class 10.

“Students appearing for the optional CET exam will be given first preference during admissions to FYJC. After these admissions are completed, the remaining vacant seats in junior colleges will be allotted to those students who do not appear for the entrance exam,” said Varsha Gaikwad, state school education minister.

The decision to conduct a CET exam for FYJC aspirants was taken to bring about uniformity and comparability in class admissions, Gaikwad had added. Earlier this year, all school education boards including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council of Indian Secondary Certificate Examinations (CISCE) decided to scrap Class 10 exams due to increasing Covid-19 cases. Instead, the boards decided to grade the students based on their internal exam performance for the year.

The state government’s decision to conduct CET for Class 11 admissions has invited mixed reactions. “As of now it seems like CET will be based on state board syllabus in mind, so we hope this does not pose as a hindrance for students from other school education boards. Also giving first preference only to those who give the entrance exam will automatically push all students to give the exam,” said the principal of ICSE school in the city.

On April 12, the state government had postponed HSC exams to the end of May and SSC exams to June. However, following CBSE’s decision to cancel Class 10 exams and a similar decision from ICSE, IGCSE and IB there was growing pressure to cancel exams from students and parents to ensure equivalence across boards which is key at the time of admissions to colleges. On April 20, Class 10 exams were declared cancelled by the state government and students will now be marked based on internal assessments

Around 17 lakh students appear for SSC in the state. In Mumbai itself, nearly 2.24 lakh students were admitted into various junior colleges across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region last year

Board-wise numbers

Class 10 student data (2020)

SSC: 17,54,367

CBSE: 73,484

ICSE: 23,336