Mumbai: Increasing the number of seats for the First Year Junior College (FYJC) admissions is not the solution, as it will not provide seats in well known colleges, claim students. Junior college authorities claim they do not have the necessary infrastructure to accommodate additional students since there are many students.
Students and college authorities have opposed the recent decision of the state to increase eight per cent seats for Commerce and Arts stream while five per cent for Science in FYJC.
On Tuesday, Ashish Shelar, state school education minister, said, “We have increased seats in all junior colleges in order to accommodate all state board students seeking admissions.”
In response to this decision, students claim well known colleges will not lower their cut off marks just because they have additional seats. Stuthi Shetty, a student, said.
“I have scored 50 marks in my language subjects as the state scrapped internal assessments this year which lowered my overall percentage. I cannot seek admissions with this score in any well known college as the cut off marks are high.”
Colleges will not lower their cut marks to admit students with lower scores, claimed teachers. A teacher of a South Mumbai college, said, “We cannot admit students with a lower merit just because we have to fill additional vacant seats. We have been maintaining a standard of cut marks and we will not lower it because the state messed up by scrapping internals.”
In addition, college authorities claim they do not have the necessary infrastructure to accommodate additional students. Marie Fernandes, Principal of St Andrew’s College, Bandra, said.
We have 120 seats for each stream which means there are already a lot of students. We do not have classrooms or teachers to manage additional students. FYJC admissions have already begun and the state has informed us at the last minute.”
Students will be cramped into a classroom and deprived of attention if seats are increased, according to teachers.
A senior teacher said, “FYJC is the first time when students step out of their school and enter the college lifestyle. If seats are increased, students will be cramped up into classrooms where they do not receive personal attention.”
By Ronald Rodrigues
