Nearly 8 lakh students in Maharashtra await notification on CETs for 15 courses

PUNE: Even after one month after announcement of the higher secondary certificate (HSC, Std XII) results, about eight lakh students in Maharashtra are awaiting for details of the common entrance test (CET) for admissions to engineering, pharmacy, hotel management, architecture, law among other professional courses.
The students who are waiting for the process of admissions and notification felt a lot of time was being wasted. Suhasini Palshikar, a student who has scored 95.23 % in HSC, is waiting for the engineering CET. She said, “We have been patient for many days for the results to be declared, but now that the results have been declared, and the government is taking so long to take decision on the CET.”

Every year, the admissions are conducted for engineering, pharmacy, agriculture, law, B Ed, hotel management, architecture, MBA, MCA among other professional courses that are dependent on CET. There are nearly four lakh seats available in Maharashtra for undergraduate professional courses in private and government institutes.
For over 14 courses, there are 7,74,859 applicants from Maharashtra and outside. All these students are awaiting the CET dates. Principal of an engineering college in the city said, “For the last few years, the education department is in the process of changing the firm that conducts the examination. However, in this process, students have been suffering and their careers are at stake.”
Atharva Kane, another architecture student, said, “The delay by the government is leading to a delay in the academic schedule. Later, the following years will get affected. After the CET is conducted, there will be other procedures such as declaration of results, conducting the rounds for admissions, confirmation of seats and starting of classes.”