State plans 90% FYJC quota for SSC students

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: Much to the consternation of non-SSC students, state education minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil announced at a press conference on Monday that the government was planning to introduce 90% reservations in junior colleges for students from the Secondary School Certificate Board (SSC) board.

The government is still seeking legal opinion on the matter. If the move is cleared before the admissions begin, it will be implemented from this year itself. If not, it will be implemented from next year, Vikhe-Patil said.

“We have received petitions from several SSC students and parents complaining of the abnormal marking system implemented by the ICSE and CBSE boards, whereby they get phenomenally high marks. SSC students feel that an injustice has been done to them. The government has to take all sections of society into consideration,’’ said Vikhe-Patil, explaining the government’s decision.

While the government wishes to introduce this move in a bid to bring parity between the marks scored by SSC students and those scored by children from other boards, many parents and principals do not approve of the move.

Marathi compulsory till Standard X
The state government is all set to introduce Marathi as a compulsory language in all schools in the state up to Class X from next year. This will include ICSE, CBSE as well as international schools. The state had previously issued a government resolution making the language compulsory in all schools up to Class IV. Over the next year, the government will devise a syllabus for Marathi for the secondary section, which all schools will have to follow.Currently, ICSE schools have Marathi for only a few years in middle school, whereas CBSE schools do not have the language at all.

State warns ICSE, CBSE boards
Starting next year, ICSE and CBSE Class X students will be barred from applying to junior colleges in the city if their respective boards fail to furnish the details required for the online admission procedure. Despite several reminders, the ICSE and CBSE boards have not sent in details of their students to the state government.

State’s SSC quota plan upsets ICSE
Mumbai: The state government’s plan to reserve 90% seats in junior colleges for SSC students has upset the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education council. “Why not reserve all 100% seats for SSC students? Why leave anything for other boards? This is not at all fair,’’ said Gerry Arathoon, spokesperson of the ICSE board.

Arathoon was in Maharashtra a couple of weeks ago for a meeting with the government. “Representatives of four boards—ICSE, SSC, IB and IGCSE—met the Maharashtra government. At that time there was absolutely no mention of 90% reservations for SSC students,’’ he added.

Many college principals, too, said the system was unfair. “This is a short-term solution. Eventually, the government needs to improve the standard of education offered in the state so that SSC students can compete on an equal footing with other boards,’’ said Suhas Pednekar, principal of Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga.

D G Ruparel College principal Pradeep Kulkarni pointed out the unfairness of the proposal. If implemented, ICSE and CBSE students with high scores would be upset when SSC students with fewer marks beat them to a seat in a good college, he said.

“In the age of globalisation, as long as someone qualifies for entry to a college, one cannot have such norms to restrict entry to meritorious students,’’ added Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, principal of St Xavier’s College.

This is not the first time the state has put forward such a proposal. A year ago, the government had felt the need to help SSC students who scored less than those from other boards. It introduced a ‘percentile formula’ to “normalise’’ the marks scored by students from the various boards. This had resulted in a furore. The government was taken to court by an ICSE student, ICSE principals and the ICSE board. The HC ruled against percentiles.

Until the year before last, about 60%-70% of students admitted to Ruparel College were from the ICSE or CBSE boards. Last year, after the percentile formula was announced, the figure dropped to about 30%