Mad rush exasperates students

A day after the declaration of the SSC exam results, parents and students had mixed reactions to colleges’ arrangements for admissions to FYJC. While some provided complete information, several left them hunting. To add to their woes, it rained too.

“We did not have any trouble at Sathaye College as we were sitting in classrooms instead of standing in long queues. Even Mithibai and NM Colleges were distributing forms in an organised way. But at Patkar College, we were not given any guidance,” said FYJC aspirant Manisha Shetty. This year, colleges which usually sold forms between 10am and 1pm, had extended the deadline till 5pm. “The circular from the State School Education Department asked for counters to remain open till 5 pm. But, we started selling forms from 9am till 5pm, as there was double the rush from last year,” said Dr Welling, principal of NM College.

While colleges such as Ruparel, HR, Sathaye and KC received full marks for their arrangements, several others such as Bhavans, Patkar and Dhanukar failed to impress the hassled parents. “We had to wait in a long queue in the pouring rain at Patkar. Even the forms for separate streams were sold at the same counter, leading to longer queues,” complained Vinod Kamath, a parent.

“We were not aware that the counters will be closed by 1pm. The college should extend their timings and not close counters. We have to collect forms from other colleges as well. They should be considerate towards our plight. Luckily my brother secured 93.84 per cent and we got the forms easily here. They should have counters based on percentages. It would make the job easier for us and avoid long queues,” said Ashwini Satam.

This year several colleges had made extra arrangements as they expected an increase in the number of students who passed SSC exams. Colleges like Ruparel had 20 separate counters in their campus to ease the admission process.