State govt wants 90% quota for SSC students

The Maharashtra government is planning to reserve 90 per cent of the junior college seats for students of the state’s SSC board. This means only 10 per cent of the seats will be available for students from the CBSE, ICSE, IB and IGCSE students – for every nine SSC students, there will be one seat for the other boards.

The Maharashtra government is planning to reserve 90 per cent of the junior college seats for students of the state’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) board. This means only 10 per cent of the seats will be available for students from the CBSE, ICSE, IB and IGCSE students – for every nine SSC students, there will be one seat for the other boards.

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“The state government’s working on the proposal to reserve 90 per cent of seats for SSC students. We are examining legal aspects of the issue and will take a decision soon,” Education Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said on Monday.

“If we get a go-ahead from the legal department, we will implement it from this year. We will make sure to announce it before the SSC results are out,” Vikhe-Patil said.

If the quota can’t be implemented, “we have the option of challenging the stay on the percentile system in the Supreme Court,” he said. The state could not introduce the percentile system last year after Bombay High Court stayed it.

The state tried to introduce the percentile system — a formula to standardise scores of students of all boards and level the playing field — after complaints that students of non-SSC boards got higher percentages, which gave them an advantage in junior college admissions.

“Oh my God! Why a quota system?” asked Perlin Bagli, secretary, Association of ICSE schools. “The ICSE board had agreed to the policy of taking the best of five subject scores. This is step-motherly treatment.”