Mumbai: FYJC online admission back on track after a week’s delay

What comes as a respite to First Year Junior College (FYJC) aspirants, they will be able to fill online applications for admissions to FYJC 2015-16, from the coming week.

What comes as a respite to First Year Junior College (FYJC) aspirants, they will be able to fill online applications for admissions to FYJC 2015-16, from the coming week. This year, the admissions will begin a week later than last year. The confusion over Maratha and Muslim quota in colleges delayed preparations by a month this year, resulting in the week-long delay in admission process.

The education department has decided to distribute user manuals for the online process in schools in the coming week. “We will hand over the manuals to the school principals next week and students will then be able to fill the first part of the application form,” said BD Phadtare, deputy director of education, Mumbai region.

Students will be able to fill the second part of the form after the board exam results are declared in June. Training sessions have been completed for junior college staff, while training for schools have just begun. “We have already started training principals of schools to guide students in filling the forms, while manuals have been sent for printing,” said Phadtare.

Meetings with junior college staff on rules and regulations to be followed during admissions also concluded on Tuesday, said Phadtare. “Colleges have completed registering on the website and we have briefed their administrative staff,” he said.

Last year, the online form-filling for students had begun on April 24. “The admission process has started late this year. However, we are trying to ensure it does not get delayed by too many days,” Phadtare said.

The delay was caused as the department was waiting for clarity on the quota that was proposed. The state had announced reservation for Marathas and Muslims. Although preparatory work for admissions, including registering colleges and upgrading the website, begins in February every year, this year the department could not start work till early April.

“We couldn’t start work until a final decision on the quota was taken. If it was implemented this year, it would have meant changing our online system to make provisions for reservation of 16% seats for Marathas,” Phadtare said.

The attempt to change the nodal agency that conducts the online admissions — from Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) to National Informatics Centre (NIC) — also led to the delay.