Mumbai: It has been a month that the first merit list for First Year Junior College (FYJC) online admissions was declared on August 30. Since then, there has been no further declaration of merit lists as the process has been halted. The online admission process has been postponed until further notice due to the Supreme Court direction regarding the socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) reservation.
The FYJC admission process, a major admission process after Class 10, witnessed over 2.75 lakh students registering in the Mumbai region this year. Around 844 colleges have offered over 3.20 lakh vacant seats. But these colleges can neither fill seats nor start online lectures for those who have been admitted in the first merit round.
Junior colleges said that the academic year is getting delayed as generally the FYJC admission process is completed by July-end or August. Umang Pandey, a teacher said, "We generally start regular lectures from the first week of August. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic already delayed the Class 10 board examination results and now, the FYJC admission process has been halted midway."
A senior officer of the state education department managing FYJC online admissions said, "We were hoping the admission process would resume last week. But we are waiting for a direction from the state government."
The second merit list for FYJC online admission was scheduled to be declared on September 10. But on September 9, the SC stayed reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for candidates belonging to the Maratha community in Maharashtra. Following which the state education department announced, "With reference to the orders of the SC of India (regarding SEBC reservation), the rest admission process is postponed until further notice." This year, 12 per cent seats were reserved for SEBC in FYJC admission.
