Anxiety over admissions continues

Anxiety over junior colleges admission continues as the state government on Wednesday put the admission process on hold for two days to study the Bombay High Court order. Bhavya Dore reports.

Anxiety over junior colleges admission continues as the state government on Wednesday put the admission process on hold for two days to study the Bombay High Court order.

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"We are putting the admissions process on hold for two days," said Balasaheb Thorat, the school education minister.

If the government does not file an appeal against the HC order, the admissions process would be based on all subjects that students appear for exams in. This means that for SSC students the average will be based on six subjects and for ICSE students on seven. CBSE students appear for exams in five subjects.

This has further delayed the admissions process. "Usually we are well into the admissions process by this point in time," said Dr Kirti Narain, principal of Jai Hind College at Churchgate. "There is the danger of the term becoming shorter again." It is also likely that scores of SSC students will dip now that all six subjects will be counted in determining the percentage. "It could drop by 1 to 2 per cent from what we had expected it to be," added Narain.

"Why didn’t the state take sound legal advice before coming out with this policy? They keep formulating policies for the masses to keep their vote bank intact," said Jayant Jain, an education activist.

It’s unclear if the board will issue fresh marksheets to SSC students. The marksheets issued on June 22 show the average percentages based on the best-five subject scores. "The HC said admissions cannot be on the basis of best-five, but not putting it on the marksheet. Scores of all six subjects are mentioned on the marksheet," said a college principal.