TENSE ROAD TO JUNIOR COLLEGE

Not all new colleges are ready for the show

Urvashi Sharma & Sumaiya Ali | TNN

Mumbai: The state government has declared that 154 new junior colleges are going to take in Class X pass-outs from this academic year. But a visit to a couple of them on Friday showed that not all of them may be prepared to handle the rush this year.

Ratnabhoomi Vikas Mandal Vidyalaya in ghatkopar (West) has started the admission process and has already taken in six students.

The junior college has an intake capacity of 80 but all the students will have to be crammed into the lone classroom that this college has managed to set aside. There are four members on the faculty and the college will offer commerce to students.

TOI spoke to college principal S P Mahajan on Friday and he appeared confident that the college would be able to handle the situation. “Students who have not got a seat elsewhere can get admission in our college and we will increase the number of seats if required,’’ he said.

But the infrastructure at the institution might need some improvement as TOI found classes with broken windows and furniture.

The other junior college that TOI visited on Friday was Dominic Savio Vidyalaya in Ghatkopar (East).

A staffer at that college office said that the institution is still waiting for written permission from the Maharashtra education department, despite the state having announced that it is one of the 154 new junior colleges. The college, therefore, is not having any session this year, said the staffer who also said that the principal was unavailable. The college also needs to appoint faculty and arrange for equipment for the proposed science and commerce streams.

toireporter@timesgroup.com