50,000 first-year junior college students from Maharashtra enrol for online classes

Nearly 50,000 students from the state have registered for free online classes for first-year junior college (FYJC) organised by the Maharashtra education department,

Nearly 50,000 students from the state have registered for free online classes for first-year junior college (FYJC) organised by the Maharashtra education department, which were started on Monday.

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With FYJC admissions still unable to restart due to the stay on Maratha quota in jobs and education, the education department decided to start online classes for students, irrespective of their admission status. “Until colleges begin, students can attend these lectures which will be held by expert teachers in each subject. We are hoping the numbers rise as more students get to know about the initiative,” said Dinkar Patil, director of secondary education.

Students who wish to join the online classes can register on the department’s portal – covid19.scertmaha.ac.in/eleventh – and will later receive details about the time table and schedule for classes. All the classes will also be made available on YouTube Live, stated the education department. As of Sunday evening, nearly 9,500 students from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) had registered for the online classes.

The education department has roped in several expert teachers to conduct these classes. Most registrations that have come so far are from students in the Science stream, followed by Commerce and Arts.

Teachers, however, said that the online classes cannot be a solution for the admission limbo. “Students who are in FYJC are new to college, and especially in streams like Arts where every subject is new to them, they need to be taught with individual attention. Also, some students are not clear on which stream to choose and often wait for cut-offs before deciding. What classes will they attend?” asked the teacher from a suburban college.