Admission to the first year of the polytechnic courses at the 51 government-run colleges will be based on the Class IX annual examination marks, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi said on Saturday. The students will be admitted based on the same norms as for Class XI. Those who passed Class X last year will be admitted based on their Class X marks.
Normally, admissions are done through scores obtained by students in the Class X public examinations. But these exams were cancelled this year owing to the pandemic. The government cancelled the exams for Classes X, XI and XII this year. Lateral admission to the second year of the polytechnic courses would be based on the award of marks in Classes XI and XII, officials said.
However, school teachers said Class IX students did not take the annual exams as the government declared all of them promoted in the academic year 2020-21. This year, too, the government exempted students from the Class X board exams.
Polytechnic teachers said that in the academic year 2020-21, students were admitted based on the mark sheet submitted by the School Education Department. “The Department had prepared a mark sheet based on their performance in the quarterly, half-yearly and monthly tests. We don’t know on what basis they will prepare the mark sheet this time,” said the principal of a government polytechnic college.
The rules to appear for the arrears exams in polytechnic colleges will be similar to those of Anna University. The students who have arrears in the sixth, seventh and eighth semesters will be allowed to write the exams at one stretch. Until now, students were allowed to bunch their arrears examinations in a group of four semesters. A student who had arrears in the sixth, seventh and eighth semesters had to wait after taking up the sixth semester arrears exams before he could write the seventh and eighth semester arrears exams.
The Higher Education Department has done away with this waiting period. Students can take the sixth, seventh and eighth semester arrears exams in one go. If students wanted to appear for the re-exams, they were expected to pay for all the papers even if they had to write the arrears exams for just one paper in a semester. Also, students were expected to pay ₹750 in fees for each paper during the grace period given to complete the course. These rules were dispensed with, and now students will have to pay just ₹750 for the grace period, besides ₹65 for each arrears paper.
The government plans to form a panel under an IAS officer to inquire into irregularities in appointments at Madurai Kamaraj University, Periyar University and Annamalai University, Mr. Ponmudi said.
