Mumbai: Admissions to both junior and degree colleges should be based purely on merit and not on any quota reservations, claim students, teachers and parents. Quota reservations are being strongly opposed following the ongoing Maratha protests for medical and dental seats.
Both, the first-year junior college (FYJC) and degree college admissions for undergraduate (UG) programmes have quota reservations.
Seats are reserved on constitutional basis for socially and economically backward sections of society. In addition, seats are reserved based on caste under minority quota in colleges. Apart from this, there is the management quota, where seats are held for special cases.
Reservations based on caste should be abolished, claim students. Gitanjali Nirgudkar, a student, said, “Admissions based on caste create injustice for students in the open category. Reservations based on social and economic conditions help students but those based on caste are unfair. Students use their caste to secure admissions, despite scoring low grades.”
Merit should be the only criteria for admissions, claim students. Floyde Dias, a student, said, “Admissions to various courses have cut-offs based on the marks we score. But due to caste reservations, these cut-offs are lowered for certain students. Admissions should be based on merit so that we all have a fair chance.”
Teachers and parents claim caste reservations need to be improvised. Abbas Zaffar, a teacher, said, “Caste reservations were initiated to help those who were deprived of certain resources and facilities.
But times have changed now and the system should upgrade the reservation policy.” While Dinesh Kiran, a parent, said, “The admission process to various courses need reformation, with new rules. Students of both open and reservation categories deserve fair treatment.”
