Maharashtra: Only 1.95L students opt for online FYJC admission

While the deputy directorate of education gave students time till 10pm on Tuesday to finish their applications, only 1.95 lakh students had opted for the online process till evening. Others preferred to go for offline admissions to colleges, fearing high cut-offs.

Four out of every 10 students have not opted for online admissions to the first year junior college (FYJC).

While the deputy directorate of education gave students time till 10pm on Tuesday to finish their applications, only 1.95 lakh students had opted for the online process till evening. Others preferred to go for offline admissions to colleges, fearing high cut-offs.

Out of the 3,27,798 students passing the SSC exams from Mumbai division this year, only 1,95,454 students confirmed their option forms. The number of applicants also includes students from other boards.

Last year, out of 3,13,815 students, 1,98,623 had opted for online admissions.

BD Phadtare, deputy director of education, Mumbai region, was surprised by the low turnout this year. “Till Monday, only 1.8 lakh students had applied for admission. Hence, we kept the link open for another day to make sure students could complete their forms,” said Phadtare. “The number has not matched our expectations.”

Officials blamed the low demand on the rise in the number of minority-run junior colleges and the CBSE and ICSE schools offering Class 12 this year.

At least 72 new colleges and divisions have been started from this academic year, on a self-financed basis.

“More schools have started offering up to Class 12 in CBSE and ICSE this year,” said Phadtare, adding that many students were also opting for integrated courses, where admissions are done offline.

School principals said students were concerned about high cut-offs in the open category in online admissions. In CBSE and ICSE exams, more students had scored 90% this year, but in SSC exams close to 70% students have less than 75%. “The cut-offs for FYJC online admissions will go up this year,” said Meenakshi Walke, principal, Indian Education Society’s Sule Guruji Vidyalaya, Dadar. “We had 44 students scoring more than 90%, while 600 got first class.”