ATKT: Court raps state for late decision

Shibu Thomas I TNN

Mumbai: The beleaguered state education department came in for some more flak over the ATKT system from the Bombay high court on Monday.

A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Ajay Khanwilkar, while hearing a case regarding the state education department’s Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) policy, questioned the government for taking decisions concerning academics at the eleventh hour. “Why are such decisions taken in June and not earlier?’’ the judges asked. The court also asked the state if there was adequate infrastructure to accommodate the additional students who would be promoted because of ATKT.

The HC also asked the state government to furnish records in connection with its decision to allow SSC students, who failed this year, to take admissions to first-year junior college using the ATKT facility.

Advocate-general Ravi Kadam told the court that the state had decided to introduce the ATKT system as a social welfare measure after finding that students who failed in their SSC examinations suffered psychological trauma. “ATKT will ensure that such students remain in education,’’ Kadam said.

Kadam added that the ATKT system was a stop-gap arrangement for this year as the state proposed to roll out a new scheme, allowing for supplementary examinations for students who failed, from the 2010-11 academic year.

The state last month introduced the ATKT system which allowed SSC students, who had failed in a maximum of two subjects during the March 2009 exams, to get admitted to the next grade. The ATKT students were required to clear the exams by March 2010, failing which their admissions would be cancelled.

A similar proposal to allow the ATKT facility for HSC students is pending with the higher and technical education department.

A state affidavit said 1.47 lakh students were eligible to take admission to FYJC with the help of the ATKT. Kadam said there were enough seats available; 1.85 lakh of the 10.03 lakh FYJC seats were vacant after the regular admissions. The advocate-general also pointed out that over a lakh students usually dropped out after passing their SSC exams.

Lawyers Ram Apte and Anjali Helekar, representing petitioner ABVP, however, claimed that there were discrepancies in the numbers furnished by the state. ABVP said the government introduced the system in haste without ensuring that infrastructure was in place.