CET admissions: Maharashtra principals to be trained to help students

Circular sent out by DTE clearly states that all headmasters and principals will have to sit through the training sessions and in turn pass on the knowledge to students in their institutes

The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) has asked school and junior college principals to attend a training programme in January to understand the admission process upon completion of the Common Entrance Test (CET).

More than 4,09,260 students from Maharashtra took the CET this year. (HT Photo)

Officials from DTE said the move is aimed spreading awareness among top officials in education institutions so that they can help students make informed choices. The decision to train principals was taken after the DTE received numerous complaints from engineering aspirants this year about not getting enough assistance from their colleges during the admission process.

“Many students complained that they missed out on securing a seat at the institute of their choice, as they were not aware of the ‘float, slide, freeze’ options, allowing them to secure better seat allotment in the next admission round. Many were unaware, and with little help coming from their school heads, it was a lost cause,” said Dayanand Meshram, joint director, DTE. He added that this was one of the main reasons for many vacancies in diploma courses in 2016.

The circular sent out by DTE clearly states that all headmasters and principals will have to sit through the training sessions and in turn pass on the knowledge to students in their institutes. “Usually, students attend these workshops after their board exams so we want to give the head of the institute enough time to understand the process. We hope this will help more students get a seat in the institute of their choice,” he added.

DTE started a new process this year where students had three options once their names appeared in the merit list— Freeze (to confirm admissions), Float (to temporarily lock the seat and be eligible for another round of allotment) and Slide (to move branches within the same institute). With only three rounds of admissions to be conducted in 2017, students can avail the betterment option in the first two rounds.

Schedule for CET exams for the academic year 2017-18 has already been released and while the CET for engineering and pharmacy courses is being held on May 11, 2017, the CET for MBA and MMS courses is being conducted on March 4 and 5.