Despite several high-scorers in the secondary school certificate (SSC) exams, cut-offs – minimum marks for admissions to first year of junior college (FYJC) – in the first merit list dipped by 3% to 4% . There were several anomalies in the list released, said principals.
While some students scoring 500 out of 500 were left without a seat, those scoring less than them secured admissions.
Sanika Ranade, who scored 100% in SSC exams, was not allotted a seat. “This is very unusual, we think there is some problems in the list,” said a principal. “The admissions were conducted in a haphazard manner this time.”
Education officials said Sanika was not allotted a seat because she has already taken admission through quota. “Quota admissions were done before regular admissions,” said BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region. “Those students securing seats in quota were not considered in this merit list.”
Another student Raqiah Murtaza entered her marks wrongly – 1185 out of 1185 – in her application , but the error has not been corrected. The department will intervene to help Raquiah Murtaza who has been allotted St Xavier’s College, Fort, because the department did not correct mistakes in her form. She has been called to the department tomorrow. “The student corrected the form but it could not be updated due to technical problems. We will make an exception for her and allow her to apply for the next round even though she has been allotted her first preference,” said Chavan.
Authorities at Andheri’s Pace Junior Science College said there were discrepancies in the list. The college cut-off fell to 92.6% from 93.2%. “Many seats in are not allocated properly. We thought the cut-off would be much higher,” said Kawal Gupta, spokesperson of the institute.
Admissions to Pace, Thane, closed at 94% last year.
The list was to be announced at 5 pm on Monday, but it was delayed several times and students were finally allotted seats at 1 am on Tuesday. Colleges, too, received the list late after 11.15 am.
At Jai Hind College, Churchgate, the cut-off for commerce fell to 89.4% from 91.8%. The cut-off for science dropped to 84.6%, much lower than last year’s 90.4%, while for arts it dipped to 89.8% from last year’s 91.4%.
“We are surprised that the cut-off dropped by so many points, even though there was a surge in high-scorers in SSC exams,” said Ashok Wadia, principal of the college.
“Parents and students approaching us for finalising their seats panicked in the morning, as we didn’t have the list till then. We admitted students on the basis of their allotment messages,” said Wadia.
For Mithibai College, Vile Parle, admission cut-off dropped by 3 to 4% across streams. While for science it fell to 85.17% from 89.20%, commerce was 87.6% from 91.6%, and arts closed at 83.8%, significantly lower than last year’s 87.33%.
A few junior colleges attached to schools, however, saw higher cut-offs. At Thakur Vidya Mandir, Kandivli, the cut-off for science jumped to 93.16% from last year’s 89%-90%. “Our list begins at 98.2%, which is considerably higher than what we saw in the past,” said the school authorities.
