State nod to form panels to hear school fee disputes

A Pune-based think tank has objected to the state education department’s failure to audit the first-year junior college (FYJC) admission process last year.

A Pune-based think tank has objected to the state education department’s failure to audit the first-year junior college (FYJC) admission process last year.

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System Correcting Movement (SYSCOM) said that the department had not followed the orders of the Bombay high court in 2016 directing a compulsory annual audit of the entire process. “In 2016-17 and 2017-18, the department did not pay attention to the directions and failed to conduct an audit. In 2018-19, this audit was conducted by KPMG. Again, the department failed to conduct an audit last year,” reads a statement issued by SYSCOM.

Members of the think tank who got hold of the KPMG report said that the audit revealed several lapses in the process of admissions. “The report mentions that the entire admission process has failed to implement merit-based admissions in many ways. Similarly, there is no clarity on how much money is collected from students for FYJC admissions, as the audit was not comprehensive. After getting a negative report from the third-party audit, the government has now stopped the process altogether,” alleged Vaishali Bafna, a member of SYSCOM.

Amongst other things, the report highlights the system’s failure to tell students what is lacking in documents required for admissions. In many cases where students fail to submit requisite documents, their admission is shown as cancelled without any details about what is lacking.

Officials from the Mumbai division said that the issue falls under the jurisdiction of the state authorities. Senior officials from the education department did not respond to calls and messages.