As many as 5,812 students who secured A+ in all subjects in the SSLC examinations could not secure admissions to Plus One course even after two rounds of allotment.
While 1,15,734 Plus One applicants have not enrolled yet, the Government estimates the actual requirement to be 67,910, factoring in the admission rates during the past five years. A total of 3,07,021 students have secured admissions thus far.
Divulging the current status of the admission process in the Assembly on Monday, General Education Minister V. Sivankutty announced various measures to overcome the crisis of seat dearth in certain areas.
Taluk-wise data
A taluk-wise study of the ongoing single-window admission process has reported seat shortage in 50 and surplus in 27 of the 78 taluks. Going by course combinations, 36 taluks had a shortage of Science seats, while 41 and 46 taluks respectively had shortage in Humanities and Commerce seats.
Mr. Sivankutty said batches lying vacant would be reallocated to districts facing shortage of seats. The Government has currently effected a 20% marginal seat increase in Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Kannur, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram.
Further increase
“In such districts, the number of seats will be further increased by 10% in Government schools, wherever necessary. State-run schools will witness a seat increase of 10% or 20% in other districts in accordance with the demand. Besides, aided and unaided schools that have adequate infrastructural facilities can apply for a 10 or 20% hike. While 20% of the newly sanctioned seats will come under the management quota, the rest will be allotted for the merit quota,” he said.
Temporary batches
In places where such seat hikes did not resolve the crisis, temporary batches will be sanctioned on the basis of applications received during the supplementary allotment. A total of 8,72,92 Plus One seats were available. In addition, 83,000 seats were available in vocational higher secondary, polytechnic and ITI institutions, the Minister added.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan was critical of the decision to publish supplementary allotment list before permitting course combination transfer and school transfer, and not vice versa. The move denied several meritorious students from opting for subjects of their choice.
T.V. Ibrahim (Indian Union Muslim League) cautioned that the unscientific seat hike was fraught with challenges. While the class strength has already risen to 60 (from 50) where seats have been marginally increased, a further increase could lead to a scenario when classes had 65 or 70 students. Besides violating the Right to Education Act, this could lead to difficulties in utilising laboratory facilities and others.
