Make FYJC audit report public, say petitioners in Mumbai

Over two lakh students in Mumbai region secured admission in the process, which stretched from June to September. But, they complained that they were allotted far-off colleges and not their preferred ones, even though their scores matched the college cut-offs.

Education activists in Mumbai and Pune want the report of the ongoing third-party audits into first year junior college (FYJC) admissions, which concluded last month, to be made public. The admission process drew flak from students and parents for not allotting seats on merit basis.

Over two lakh students in Mumbai region secured admission in the process, which stretched from June to September. (HT File Photo)

Over two lakh students in Mumbai region secured admission in the process, which stretched from June to September. But, they complained that they were allotted far-off colleges and not their preferred ones, even though their scores matched the college cut-offs.

The Bombay high court ordered a third-party audit in response to public interest litigation filed by Syscom, a non-governmental organisation.

Although the HC order is silent on whether the report should be made public, Syscom said the report is in public interest and hence should be accessible to all.

The petitioners suspect that the admission process was conducted in a flawed manner. “According to the data gathered by us, over 35,000 students were admitted in the quota seats after the deadline to surrender quota seats ended,” said Vaishali Bafna, a parent and one of the petitioners. “This means that seats, which should have been transferred to the open category, were utilised by colleges to admit reserved category students.”

Bafna raised doubts over the audits. “The department hasn’t revealed the parameters that are being checked. We want them to look into every aspect, even the expenditure incurred by the government and whether it was justified to charge Rs150 from students for the admissions manual,” she said.

Education officials said Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (Yashada), the state administrative training institute, is conducting the audit. “Yashada will submit the report to the state government. The report will be confidential and will not be released to the public,” said BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region.