Mumbai students may face academic hurdles due to SC stay on FYJC admissions: Experts

With the admissions’ process for junior colleges on hold, over 2.42 lakh students in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) are faced with uncertain futures. While

With the admissions’ process for junior colleges on hold, over 2.42 lakh students in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) are faced with uncertain futures. While some coaching classes have started online classes, experts and parents have flagged concerns about the far-reaching consequence of delaying the opening of junior colleges in the state.

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On March 21, Nimisha Pawar, 15, wrote her last paper for her secondary school certificate (SSC) examination and went on to score an impressive 91%. However, she is yet to begin her first-year junior college (FYJC) classes.

In line with the Supreme Court’s (SC) interim stay on the implementation of the quota for the Maratha community in jobs and education, Maharashtra’s education department stayed the admission process for FYJC on September 9. Following this, the second merit list for admissions, scheduled to be released on September 10, has not been released and the admission process is yet to restart.

“The last few months have been really stressful. First, the results of SSC exams came out late due to Covid-19. Now the delay in colleges reopening has added to our stress. I was really hoping to get the college of my choice in the second merit list, but the stay on admission has now led to a lot of uncertainty,” said Pawar, a resident of Worli.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) released the SSC results in July and the online admission process began in August for Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Amravati. Across the six divisions in the state, nearly 4 lakh students have applied for admissions.

In the zero rounds for admissions under various quotas – including management, minority and in-house – and the first admission round, over 78,000 students were admitted to colleges in the MMR out of the 2.32 lakh students who submitted applications this year. Of the total applicants, 2,923 students applied for the 17,844 seats under the Maratha quota.

Colleges warned that this delay could have far-reaching consequences. “Students are already under a lot of psychological stress due to the delay in admissions. While syllabus completion seems to be a key challenge in the days to come, we are more worried about students not being able to cope academically,” said the principal of a South Mumbai school, requesting anonymity.

SL Dixit, a retired chemistry teacher from SK Somaiya College and the president of the Mumbai Regional Junior College Teachers’ Organisation (MRJCTO) said, “Especially for subjects like physics and chemistry where students get to do practicals in order to understand key concepts, this delay is dangerous. Class 11 is the base for concepts that are taught in Class 12 and it cannot be ignored. Even if colleges begin now, colleges and students are going to be under immense stress.”

Subhash Joshi, trustee of city-based coaching chain Science Parivar, pointed out that realigning the state’s academic year requires coordination with other academic calendars. “A large number of FYJC students will appear for other competitive exams like JEE, NEET etc. Since these exams will happen as per their schedules [next year], pushing the academic year further will put Maharashtra students in a spot.”

Joshi said that while coaching classes have started teaching online from August, students can’t attend practicals, which are conducted by colleges. “Classes are not equipped to teach [practicals] but it forms the very basis of concepts in science. We hope the government allows a hybrid model where some students are allowed to visit colleges on a rotational basis,” he said. Ahana Seth, a Borivali-based parent whose son wants to study in the Arts stream, said, “Most Arts students do not go to coaching classes and college is the only place where they learn things. Subjects like psychology, sociology are completely new for students and the delay in reopening colleges effectively means losing out on time to understand these subjects well.”

Colleges say they are awaiting a directive from the government. “We cannot start classes for those who are admitted because it would be unfair to the others who are still waiting,” said Vidyadhar Joshi, vice-principal of VG Vaze College, Mulund.

While state education minister Varsha Gaikwad remained unavailable for a comment despite calls and messages, a senior official from the education department said that the state is exploring options to start classes soon. “We have yet to receive advice from the law and judiciary department on how to proceed. Meanwhile, the education department is trying to start free online classes for FYJC to prevent further delay,” said the official.