Despite failure, online admissions back

Having failed in its first outing last year, the process of online admission to junior colleges is getting ready for a second attempt. This time around, the Maharashtra government is promising an “idiot-proof” easy-to-use process that it says will erase memories of the fare it doled out last year to hapless SSC students applying for college admissions.

Last year, applying for colleges online seemed to the SSC student an even tougher exam than the boards. An SSC student, Sadashiv Gawde, who scored 89.07 per cent in the board exam, got a seat in a college at Mira Road, when he was a resident of Kalwa in the central suburbs. With his high scores, he could have easily secured an admission in a college in Thane, Gawde said. “It takes one and a half hour for me to reach Mira Road. A college there was my 21st option,” he added. Many such cases were reported, thanks to the zonal allocation process in the online admission system.

The education department largely blamed the parents and students for filling incorrect codes in their forms. This year, the government plans to make the information booklet so simple that even a technically-challenged applicant can work his or her way through the start-to-finish process.

Balasaheb Thorat, school education minister, said, “This time, the students will have all the information on the last day of their SSC examinations. There will be no need to fill the forms in a hurry and at the last minute. Rigorous training will be given to schools, colleges and students on filling up the form appropriately.”

Colleges will be divided ward-wise and they will not be clubbed as it was done last year, added the minister.

According to a senior official from the education department, “Right from simplifying the brochure to the codes, to the numbers of zones, and also the streams available to the students — everything has been changed (see box) for the better. Though the booklet is not out yet, students, schools and colleges will get it by March 17, which is the last day of the compulsory paper for SSC students. There will be no scope for ambiguity.” Several aspects of the process are still deliberated upon like the online payment method. “We are still in talks with banks and private firms, but nothing has materialised so far,” said the official. Admissions under the minority quota will not be included under the online process, as was the case last year.

The Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL), which took the rap last year for mishandling the online process, has been given the responsibility again. In the state government’s review, it was found that most of the problems surfaced because students and their parents goofed up, either in filling up their forms, or going through with it hurriedly or because the instructions in the information booklet were convoluted. The formula that MKCL is adopting this time is: Simplify the codes. Reduce the size. Train all the stakeholders.

Please leave us out, say Panvel colleges
Principals and college managements from Panvel recently approached the school education minister, Balasaheb Thorat, requesting him to exclude them from the online admission process. Principal of the one of the junior colleges said: “Only the local students come to our  colleges. There is no need to centralise it as the colleges do not get enough students with the online admission process. Even if the student wants admission in our colleges, they are allotted some other college, which is not very high on the preference list.” The principal added that several colleges last year could not fill all their seats due to  online admissions. “The problem is only visible in city areas in prominent colleges, where the demand is high, there is no need for us to be part of it,” he said. Last year, five talukas out of six in  Raigad region were excluded from the process. Only Panvel Taluka was retained, however, colleges there do not wish to be part of the process.