Anahita Mukherji | TNN
Mumbai: The city’s class X students may no longer need to navigate Mumbai’s slippery roads during the monsoon, umbrellas in hand, and rush from college to college to fill out admission forms.
On Monday afternoon, the state education department unveiled a brand new blueprint for online admissions to junior college before an audience of over 900 principals and teachers from city schools and colleges. The system is in the process of being developed by the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd and will be finetuned after taking into consideration the views of the general public.
Online admissions were introduced in Mumbai for the first time last year but the system developed a number of technical glitches and was on the verge of being scrapped this time. However, the government now plans to introduce online admissions in a new avatar.
Online admissions this year will be compulsory for all students in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and will be implemented all over Maharashtra subsequently if the system proves to be a success, state education minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said.
Students will have to log on to a website and fill out a single admission form in which they can enter up to 100 colleges that they wish to apply to. A large part of the admission form, including the student’s marks,will have already been filled out by the software. The government has asked the SSC, ICSE and CBSE boards for the necessary information.
Students will then have to print out the form and submit it along with the necessary documents to a designated college with a sum of Rs 125. Of this Rs 125, Rs 50 will go to the college, Rs 25 to MKCL, another Rs 25 to the board (SSC, ICSE, CBSE) for the information they will provide the state and the remainder to the office of the deputy director of education.
“We found that students ended up spending between Rs 500 and Rs 700 buying admission forms and travelling to colleges,’’ education secretary Sanjay Kumar said.
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, ONLINE
Online admissions will be compulsory for all Class X students in the Mumbai metropolitan region this year
If the system is a success, it will be implemented across Maharashtra in coming years. The forms for online admission will cost Rs 125
Students will only have to fill out a single form online. They can choose up to 100 colleges in one form.
A printout of the form and necessary documents will have to be submitted at the nearest college.
Information from all these application forms will then be fed into the software which will draw up the merit list for each college.
Colleges to put up own lists
Once the forms have been submitted, data from these forms will be fed into the software for online admissions. The software will then draw up the merit list (general category) for the colleges.
The education department hopes that this will make the system more transparent and reduce the possibility of malpractice.
State education secretary Sanjay Kumar said the system was not the same as centralised admissions as the government would not release a single centralised merit list but allow colleges to release separate lists.
Students will be informed about the colleges they have made it to, via email or text message. The website, which will be opened 15 days before admissions begin so that students get time to practice, does not have provision for a minority quota. So minority institutions will be asked to fill out this quota in the first seven days of admissions.
All those who make it to a college through this quota will then have their names struck off the general merit list.
Responding to several questions on how students from lower income groups with no access to the internet would use this system, Vikhe Patil said, “The MKCL centres will provide the technical support.’’ The government will also release a book of guidelines as well as FAQs on online admissions. Newspaper ads and air time on cable TV will also be used to spread the word.
Govt studying system for marks normalisation
With the Bombay high court ruling against the percentile system—introduced during junior college admissions last year to “normalise’’ the marks of SSC, ICSE and CBSE students—state education secretary Sanjay Kumar iterated that percentiles would not be part of the admission process this year.
However, he was quick to add that a large number of educationists felt the need for some sort of marks normalisation.
There are two suggestions for normalisation that the government is seriously examining. One involves reservations in each institution for students of various boards, based on the proportion of students in each of the boards.
The second suggestion involves admitting students to colleges based on their marks in the five subjects.
This system will definitely save time. If I want to apply to a college that’s far away from home, I won’t have to travel all the way there. This will make the process much easier.
Nidhi Parekh | CLASS X, ARUNODAYA PUBLIC SCHOOL, THANE
If the system works, it’ll be great. It will cut out the trouble of running from pillar to post in order to buy and submit admission forms. By the time admissions begin, the monsoons will be on. The online system will make life easier.
Amar Dalal | PARENT OF A STUDENT OF MANECKJI COOPER SCHOOL, JUHU
If the system can be implemented, it will be very good for children. The process will be a lot easier. There could be a few minor problems in the first year, though. But we need to make a start somewhere. It’s high time Mumbai had a system such as this one.
Carl Laurie | PRINCIPAL, CHRIST CHURCH SCHOOL, BYCULLA
The increasing centralisation of education is a bad idea, especially while dealing which such a large and diverse student population. An attempt should be made to decentralise admissions instead. In the online system, colleges and students will simply have to accept a merit list drawn up by the software. How do we know the system is transparent?
Fr Frazer Mascaenhas, | PRINCIPAL, ST XAVIER’S COLLEGE
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