Std XI classes begin in rural, admissions yet to start in Nagpur

NAGPUR: In a role reversal of sorts, state board junior colleges in city are envious of their rural counterparts as Std XI classes in physical mode have started there in full swing, while in urban areas even the admission process has not started.
This is because seats in city’s junior colleges are allotted through online centralized admission process (CAP), which is yet to start across Maharashtra. Outside city limits, admissions are done the traditional way with students approaching colleges directly.
Ashok Gavhankar, general secretary of Vidarbha Junior College Teachers Association (VJUCTA), said, “All this mess has been created because of state education department’s insistence on a common entrance test (CET) for Std XI. Now our CAP is linked with CET and that’s why we are stuck.”
The CET is scheduled for August 21, following which it will take a few days for results to come. Only after this can the admission process begin in city. Gavhankar, who is principal of Raosaheb Thawre Junior College near Ajni, says city students are losing out on academics due to the delay.
Another junior college principal agreed saying, “Parents are flocking the colleges either outside city limits or students are taking admission in CBSE Std XI in city. Why would any academically brilliant kid want to waste time waiting for city colleges to start admissions? Such students, who are mostly enrolled with coaching institutes, have already shifted to rural colleges where attendance is not mandatory.”
VJUCTA has now written to school education minister Varsha Gaikwad demanding that the CET be scrapped.
Gavhankar said, “At least 20,000 junior college seats will be vacant this year again, hence there is no need for CET. We have written to officials and the minister reminding them that their duty is to make things easy for students, not complicate it.”
A senior junior college teacher said many parents feel rural colleges are operating only because they have permission while those in city don’t. “Even if city colleges get permission from tomorrow, we can’t start XI classes because admissions are yet to begin,” she said.
So while rural colleges have started with physical classes, academics feel in city classes may begin only in September.