TNN,
Mumbai Sunday Times, 06th July 2008
Home Dist Quota Order Confuses Some; In Others, Cut-Offs
Dip A Bit
Mumbai:
The stresses and strains of the admission season are piling
up on both students and colleges, and principals are squarely
blaming the state government.
After the recent ruckus over the first cut-off lists, the
second set of lists spelt more bad news. Some popular suburban
colleges like the Matunga-based D G Ruparel College and
Ruia College, S S and L S Patkar College as well as Vaze-Kelkar
stalled the admissions procedure on Saturday as they were
unsure about how to implement a new state government diktat
calling for a 70% reservation for students from the home
education district.
The government circular issued to all colleges seeks to
implement a little known resolution passed five years ago
calling for 70% reservation for students from the same district
as the junior colleges. Asked how this could be applied
to Mumbai, state education secretary Sanjay Kumar said Mumbai
had three districts—Mumbai South, Suburban and Greater
Mumbai.
Several colleges in south Mumbai and the suburbs have given
the circular a miss. “This is ridiculous. How can
the government issue such a notice when admissions are almost
over? If south Mumbai colleges had to implement a 70% reservation
for students from this district, we would have to close
down completely as most of our students are from the suburbs,’’
joked one principal.
Another said the order would dilute standards at colleges.
“Already, minority institutions reserve seats for
minorities in addition to the mandatory state government
resolution policy. If we further introduce district-wise
reservations in colleges, merit will go for a toss,’’
said a principal.
TOUGH
TIME
Popular suburban colleges like D G Ruparel College, Ruia,
S S and L S Patkar and Vaze-Kelkar did not bring out the
second merit list
Cut-offs at other colleges dipped marginally, leaving students
in the lurch
Several students from national boards who scored over 85
percentile did not make it to any of the lists
Principals blamed the state’s diktat on ‘normalisation’
of SSC scores and the order on 70% reservation for students
from college home districts
Seats
full, no second list at Xavier’s
Mumbai: Explaining the delay in the second
cut-off lists in some colleges, the principal of a city
college said he was unable to get through to the deputy
director’s office for clarifications on the 70% reservation
for students from the same education district. Another said
the two principals’ associations had also tried to
get a clearer picture from the state government but were
unable to do so.
“We have delayed the second merit list by a couple
of days. We will put it up on Monday. We’re waiting
for a clarification on the matter from the deputy director
of education,’’ said Suhas Pednekar, principal,
Ruia College in Matunga.
Several principals said the state had created more confusion,
pointing to the brand new ‘normalisation’ scheme—which
involves calculating percentile scores for all Std X students
to put the SSC board on par with the national boards—after
admissions were already under way. Colleges which had already
begun feeding data into their systems have had to re-calculate
their scores.
At colleges that did manage to put up a second list, students
had little to cheer about. The sky-high cut-offs after the
first merit list dipped marginally.
T Shivare, principal of Hinduja College, Charni Road, was
one of those who implemented the new reservation policy
in the second list. While some colleges got the circular
on Saturday, others are still to do so. Most colleges have
chosen to ignore the diktat and continue with the admissions
process, but those which took the circular seriously are
in a dilemma and have stalled admissions.
CBSE and ICSE students were the worst-hit as the new percentile
system meant that the marks of SSC students were scaled
up.
Natanshi Nidhi, a CBSE student from Birla Public School,
who scored 85.73 percentile, and her classmate, Harshita
Mandowara, who scored 85.6 percentile, had applied to H
R, K C and Jai Hind College but did not make it to any of
them. “I am against the percentile system. How can
the authorities scale up the marks of SSC students by almost
3%?’’ asked Nidhi.
At St Xavier’s College, Dhobi Talao, there was no
second list for the Arts stream, as all the seats were filled
in Round One. The science cut-off at St Xavier’s dipped
from 91 percentile to 89 percentile.
K C College principal Manju Nichani said 200 of the 240
seats were already filled in both commerce and the arts
and 415 of 580 in science. While the cut-off for arts has
dipped by three percentile, entry to commerce and science
has dipped by only one percentile.
At Mithibai College, percentiles for all streams fell by
two notches. Principal Kiran Mangaonkar said just 40% of
the seats were yet to be filled.
At H R College of Commerce and Economics, 700 of the 900
seats have been filled. In SIES College, all the commerce
seats have been filled and only a few remain in science.
At Jai Hind College, the cutoff for Arts has fallen by a
whopping 7 percentile—admission closed at 84 percentile
after the first list and then scores plunged to 77.14 percentile
for the second list. Commerce, which closed at 91 percentile
on Thursday when the first list was put up, fell to 88.
Similarly, entry levels for science fell from 93 percentile
to 91 percentile.
