Academics question need for Std XI CET

Nagpur: Academics are questioning the need for Std X CET, considering that over 40% seats were vacant in the 2020-21 session. Vacant Std XI seats in Nagpur and other places in Maharashtra is not a new phenomenon but considering the almost 100% pass rate this year, there was a concern over availability of seats. But senior academics say all passouts will be ‘easily’ absorbed.
An academic, who is closely involved with the Centralized Admission Process (CAP), said, “Look at last year’s SSC passing rate. It’s a staggering 94.6% for our district. But even with this record breaking number of students passing, we have almost half of our Std XI seats lying vacant.”
Another junior college principal said, “But will we be able to have enough for the 2021-22 session, considering that the pass rate is above 99%? Yes, definitely. Even with almost 95% students passing, we had half the seats vacant. So there is enough scope to absorb these students.”
These statistics have prompted senior academics to question the need for CET. A junior college principal said, “My problem is that the academic session is getting delayed. We could have started admissions now itself through CAP rather than taking such a long and circuitous route.”
An education official said that the government wanted to have a level playing ground for everyone for the XI admissions. “In our state board junior colleges, students from other boards also flock in high numbers. If their overall scores are higher than our kids, then it won’t be fair as everything this year has been done on internal assessments. With CET, we can still have a fairly transparent method of judging applicants,” said the official.