Mumbai: Junior Colleges are in a fix over less number of students securing seats for the Science stream in the First Year Junior College (FYJC) admission process. Teachers, classrooms, laboratories and other facilities will go wasted if there are not enough students under the Science stream, claim college authorities. Out of 1.34 lakh students who have been allotted seats in the first merit list which was declared on July 12, around 38,714 students have been allotted seats for Science. In addition, this year, a total of 49,478 students have opted for admissions for Science while the rest have opted for Commerce, Arts or vocational courses.
College authorities reveal less number of students will lead to wastage of their faculty and infrastructure. The principal of a suburban college, said, “Our classrooms are lying vacant as there are very few students who opt for the Science stream. In addition, these handful students secure admissions in well-known colleges, so what are small colleges supposed to do? Our manpower in terms of teachers and laboratory staff and infrastructure like classrooms and laboratories is wasted.” Teachers reveal the number of students opting for Science is reducing compared to other courses. Gitanjali Chadda, a teacher, said, “If out of 1.85 lakh students who have applied for FYJC admissions only 49,478 students wish to pursue Science then there is a change of trend among students.”
Currently, junior colleges have around 120 seats for general Science stream and another 120 seats for vocational Science for Class 11. Dominic Rozario, a teacher, said, “We got to reduce the number of seats for Science if there are less students. Instead, we can increase the number of seats for those courses which are in demand.” Students revealed they do not want to opt for Science as they do not want to pursue engineering, pharmacy or architecture fields ahead. Naumaan Vora, a student, said, “Technical and medical fields are expensive and it is tough to secure seats with increasing competition and quota reservation.”
