Mumbai
Edition, 15th July 2008
ADMISSION
RELIEF, BUT SOME PAIN LINGERS
Mumbai:
The state government has shown that it’s
no better than an unprepared SSC candidate who develops
cold feet inside the examination centre but promises that
he will emerge with flying colours the next year.
After the big debate over the controversial 70:30 reservation
policy in junior college admissions, the state suddenly
withdrew the policy moments before it could be heard by
the chief justice of the Bombay high court on Monday.
Following the assurance from advocate general Ravi Kadam,
a division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice
A P Deshpande lifted the stay on admissions and allowed
colleges to resume the process of admitting students to
the first year junior college courses. The court’s
order came as a relief to over 12.5 lakh students in the
state who passed their SSC exams earlier this year.
However, the government told the HC that it would push for
implementing the scheme, which envisages 70% reservation
for local students, from the next academic year—that
is for 2009-10. Sanjay Kumar, state secretary for education
and sports, told TOI that colleges could have resumed admissions
from Monday itself after the HC order.
OPEN
SEASON
Admission
counters are expected to reopen on Tuesday, after principals
receive a notice from the education department
4TH
MERIT LISTS
After
students on the third merit lists finalise their admissions,
colleges are likely to put out the fourth lists this evening.
Students should be in touch with colleges to find out where
the lists will be out
COLLEGE
DISCRETION
The
few colleges that did implement the 70:30 reservation are
being allowed to decide for themselves whether to re-do
the 2nd/3rd lists
EARLY
START
St
Xavier’s is the only college known to have begun its
academic session with an orientation held at 7.30 am on
Monday
Colleges
want uniform policy
Mumbai: With the row over the 70:30 quota
settled for this year, state secretary for school education
and sports Sanjay Kumar said the government would send out
circulars to colleges on Monday giving them the green signal
for FYJC admissions. However, several principals said they
had not yet received any circular until Monday evening.
Kumar also said that those colleges that had implemented
the 70:30 quota would have the freedom to decide whether
they wished to go ahead with admissions for the fourth and
fifth merit lists or to re-do admissions for the second
and third lists.
Principals are not happy with this decision. They feel the
government should decide on a uniform policy instead of
allowing them to do whatever they want. “If we ask
students on the second and third lists to give up their
seats, we will be criticised. If we don’t, we’ll
face flak for implementing something the government has
withdrawn,’’ said a principal.
Midway through the admissions to Class XI this year, the
education department sent out circulars to all colleges
asking them to follow the 70:30 reservation policy. This
resulted in complete chaos. Some colleges implemented the
policy, others didn’t. Last week, a petition was filed
in the high court against the policy, which resulted in
a stay order on admissions until Monday.
“The confusion over admissions could have been avoided
had the government studied the effect of the 70:30 policy
before putting it into practice. What’s worse, the
decision was introduced bang in the middle of admissions,’’
said Arundhati Chavan, college principal and president of
the PTA United Forum.
She added that the government had not taken into account
the effect of such a move in urban areas and had only gone
by the scenario in rural areas. She pointed out that in
Mumbai there were more colleges in sparsely populated areas
and fewer colleges in the densely populated ones.
While the 70:30 formula has been given a very public burial
this year, the Maharashtra government has made it clear
that the battle is not yet over. In its affidavit before
the Bombay high court, the state school education department
has said that it will push for implementing the scheme for
district-wise reservations from the next academic year,
2009-10.
“The sole intention and motive behind taking such
a decision is that no student is deprived of education facilities,’’
said the affidavit by Anil Bhattalwar, deputy secretary,
school education and sports department. Refuting the PIL’s
contention that meritorious students would be overlooked,
he insisted that under the scheme, “merit is the sole
criterion which is to be followed while giving admissions
to students for Standard XI’’.
The government said that the government resolution was issued
following complaints of “difficulties faced by students
of a particular district when they were denied admissions
over students from outside’’. The affidavit
also attempted to give a positive spin to the scheme by
claiming that the decision was taken considering the fact
that students were spending time unnecessarily in travelling
to colleges outside their district. The state pointed out
that students who obtained admission in junior colleges
were barely 16 or 17 years old, and these were the formative
years of their lives. “Students who reside in a particular
area could save time by not travelling too far to their
colleges, thereby using the time saved for their studies,’’
said the affidavit.
The state also scotched talk of discrimination and told
the court that there were enough junior colleges in all
districts to take care of students passing out of schools
every year. It cited the figures from Thane where 1,09,642
students passed their Secondary School Certificate examinations
in October 2007-March 2008. While about 21,928 opted for
technical and vocational courses, the remaining 87,714 students
could choose from some 380-odd colleges with an intake capacity
of 95,440.
