Mumbai: Students applying for admissions to the First Year Junior College (FYJC) are in a fix, as they fear cut-offs will rise this year. Students of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) board fear they will not be allotted seats as large number of students from private boards who have secured higher marks have applied for admissions.
A total of 1.85 lakh students have registered for the online admission process. Out of this, around 301 SSC students have scored above 95 per cent. While, 756 students of the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board and 425 students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board have scored above 95 per cent.
Students of the state board claim, it is difficult to secure seats, as their scores are comparatively low. Tejas Sawant, a SSC student, said, "Students of private boards have got marks way higher than those of government board. Moreover, they are the ones who will be the first to get the seats, as the online admission process is completely based on merit. We will have to wait for the second and third merit round for admissions."
In addition, students have blamed the state for lower scores as internal assessments were scrapped this year. But students have been given the benefit of securing seats under the 16 per cent quota, which is reserved for the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) and 10 per cent for the Economically Weak Section (EWS).
Authorities of junior colleges claim, students need to fill their preferences for colleges carefully. Vidhushi Das, a teacher said, "Students have the liberty to fill maximum 10 colleges in their preference list. Students should list colleges carefully and maintain a balance so that they will be allotted seats accordingly. They should not list only reputed colleges where the cut-offs are high."
Students can make changes in their online application forms till July 8. The first general merit list will be declared on July 12 at 6pm. Out of the total 1.85 lakh, over 1.17 lakh students have applied for the Commerce stream, 49,543 for Science and 17,301 for Arts.
