FYJC admissions in Maharashtra: Students can apply for special round till Sunday

For the special rounds, a schedule was uploaded on the admissions portal on Wednesday evening. It says that students will be allocated seats on August 16 at 5pm, and can approach colleges to finalise them on August 18 and 19.

The state’s school education department on Wednesday announced a special round for over 20,000 students who have still not secured seats at the end of the first year junior college (FYJC) online admissions. Form filling begins on Thursday and will close on Sunday (August 13).

Of nearly 2.3 lakh students who applied, over 2,000 students were not allotted any seat in the four rounds conducted between July and August, while 8,000 did not take admission to seats they were assigned. (HT)

Owing to the Maratha Kranti Morcha on Wednesday, which witnessed lakhs pouring into the city for a protest rally, the department also announced a day’s extension for students to confirm admissions to seats allotted in fourth round- students can finalise their seats by Thursday afternoon. This was done as junior colleges in South Mumbai were asked to stay shut on Wednesday, which was earlier scheduled to be the last day of admissions.

For the special rounds, a schedule was uploaded on the admissions portal on Wednesday evening. It says that students will be allocated seats on August 16 at 5pm, and can approach colleges to finalise them on August 18 and 19.

Education officials said that the special round will be open only for those students who were not allotted seats or did not take admission in any college so far. “Students who have already been admitted to colleges — in the general category — cannot apply in this round,” said BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region.

Of nearly 2.3 lakh students who applied, over 2,000 students were not allotted any seat in the four rounds conducted between July and August, while 8,000 did not take admission to seats they were assigned.

Another 10,000 students are waiting for admissions as they were disqualified from the process because they were allotted their first preference but did not take admissions. According to the rules this year, it is mandatory for students to take admission if they get a seat in their first choice.

After this round, more rounds might be planned depending on the number of unfilled seats, said officials. “The education department will take a call on holding more special rounds after the first one is over,” said Chavan. “The idea behind these rounds is to ensure that none of the students are deprived of a seat.”

All admissions to the FYJC sections will be done through a centralised admission process this year, according to a government resolution issued in January. This was done after a Pune resident, Vaishali Bafna, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high court in 2015, claiming that the online entrance admission conducted for the past four years for Class 11 in Mumbai and Pune regions was faulty and there were deficiencies in it. The court had then directed the government to streamline the process.