What went wrong with admissions?

MUMBAI: For the past five months, 16-year-old Zoya Merchant is biding her time at home, while her friends attend college.

MUMBAI: For the past five months, 16-year-old Zoya Merchant is biding her time at home, while her friends attend college.

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They meet her in the evenings, gushing about college life and their newfound ‘freedom’ to dress in casuals and bunk lectures. But Zoya can only nod and wonder when she will have stories of her own.

An error in the online process for admission to the first year junior college (FYJC) cost Zoya, who scored 399 out of 500 in Class 10, a seat in the college of her choice. She was allotted a seat in Elphinstone College at Fort. “My preference was KPB Hinduja in Charni Road, which is closer to home and offers more opportunities for extra-curricular activities,” she said.

Surprisingly, Hinduja’s cut-off was lower than her score and she could have got admission if not for the mistake, her parents said.

“We reported this to the authorities, but they turned us away saying she already got a betterment opportunity and will not be allotted any more colleges in the regular rounds,” said Afzhal, her father.

Most students were given seats in their least preferred colleges, in spite of scoring high marks. Students scoring lower marks secured better colleges — a logic principals have been questioning.

“The entire tier of students with high percentages is missing from our college this year, even though they applied. Hundreds of students who have scored higher than our cut-offs wait outside my office every day for offline admission. but we are helpless,” said Kavita Rege, principal, Sathaye College, Vile Parle.

BB Chavan, the deputy director of education, however said this is because the system allows only one betterment round. and applicants who did not list colleges in the order of preference in the option form confused the system. “This means, if a student gets his 7th preference in the first list, the system will try to get him the sixth or above college in the next list. If a child has listed a college they do not really want on top of the list, they will be allotted that college because the system doesn’t understand whether a child really wants that college or how far it is from his residence, it only understands the number,” Chavan said.

This year, the problem occurred as students didn’t list colleges in the correct order. Despite knowing this, the department did not hold orientation sessions. How did such mistakes surface seven years after the online process began in 2009 and how did they unnoticed for so long?

Officials said the government’s decision to make all admissions online this year is to be blamed. The department stated a Bombay HC order to hold all admissions in Mumbai online. But a senior official said, “The court sought transparency in the process. There are better ways of ensuring transparency than online admissions. The department is compromising the future of the students.”