Don’t start Class XI admissions: Maharashtra education department to colleges – Times of India

Dattatray Jagtap, director (secondary and higher secondary), state education department, said in a statement that it had been brought to their notice that some colleges had begun inviting applications for first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions on social media platforms.

Meanwhile, a day after Bombay high court pulled up the state for cancelling the SSC exams, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray told mediapersons during his visit to Konkan on Friday a decision on the exams issue will be taken in two to three days.

Principals and students in the city now say an entrance test in July-August is the best solution.

The state received feedback from Class X students on holding a common entrance test (CET) for Class XI. Schools too said internal assessment (for allotting marks) would not be a fair method as students had not been adequately evaluated through the year. All boards have held back decisions on conducting Class XII exams.

“An entrance test for all students seeking admission to junior colleges seems the best solution. Schools can use their computer labs as centres for the online test,” said Dr Suresh Nair, principal, Vivek School and Junior College, Goregaon. A portion of the money collected as exam fees can be used to sanitise the premises.

Rupa Dey, former principal of Shreerang school, Thane, said an entrance test is a fair option as there will be no discrimination. “Fairness is impossible in internal assessment,” said a parent.

“We are ready with our internal assessments,” said Fr Flovi D’Souza, principal, Don Bosco School, Borivli. The principal of a south Mumbai college said all boards are likely to inflate marks of their students. “Colleges where cut-offs are high may want to conduct their own entrance examination,” the principal said.

Sources in the state education department said while holding an exam for Class X is ruled out, they are examining the evaluation methods adopted by other boards.

Admission to FYJC is done through a centralised online process. Colleges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad and Amaravati conduct the process for Class XI admissions online. Other districts have offline modes.

Jagtap said the admission process for academic year 2021-22 will be released by the state. Parents and students have complained about colleges admitting secondary school certificate (SSC) students into Class XI based on their internal marks. The statement said colleges should not mislead students and parents and wait for the admission process to begin officially.

Boards such as CBSE and ICSE have begun Class XI admissions in their schools for own students. Most of these schools have either started their academic year or will begin classes by June 10. They are not bound by the state’s admission process.

The admission process for 2020-21 had stretched to as late as March this year.

(With inputs by Sujit Mahamulkar)