9 city colleges forced to shut Arts course after poor response

After witnessing a declining interest in the Arts stream by Std XI and XII students, nine colleges in the city have decided to discontinue the course during this academic year.u00a0Once a sought-after course, especially by students who wanted to pursue careers in administrative services, Arts stream today doesn't figure in popular choices. According to the recently completed Centralised Admission Procedure (CAP) for Std XI, fewer students opted for the subject.

Cut short: For the last few years, the number of students opting for Arts stream has declined drastically forcing some colleges in the city to shut the course completely. Representational Pic

Though all the nine colleges are situated in the outskirts of the city or in Pimpri Chinchwad area, the list contains some reputed names such as Modern Junior College, Yamunanagar, P A Inamdar Trust's Junior College, Wadgaonsheri, Abhinav Education Society Junior College, Ambegaon and Dr D Y Patil Arts, Commerce and Science College, Pimpri.u00a0"During the recently held CAP for class XI, no students opted for any of the nine colleges for pursuing Arts. So they are left with no option but to shut the Arts divisions or the college, in case the institute has only Arts stream," Suman Shinde, deputy director of education (Pune division) said.

Falling numbers
For the last few years, the number of students opting for Arts stream has drastically reduced. There are about 108 junior colleges across Pune and PCMC that offer Arts stream. While, only 2761 students have filled class XI form with Arts as an option.u00a0"According to a set legal procedure that governs closure of courses, first the management of the institute has to pass the proposal and then apply to the education department for further procedures of officially shutting the college," Shinde added.u00a0Expressing her concern over this situation, former Vice-Principal of Fergusson College Rekha Palshikar said, "Though colleges like Fergusson have never faced the dearth of students for Arts stream, there are many misconceptions about making a career in Arts.

Lack of options
Students and even parents are unaware about ample opportunities available. Spreading awareness about career opportunities in Arts is the only way to change the current situation.u00a0"Though 2761 student have opted for Arts stream, there is a possibility that they may have actually taken admission in other streams since students have the option to fill admission forms for two different streams," said one of the CAP official.u00a0Jyotsna Ekbote, deputy decretary of Progressive Education Society, which runs Modern Junior College of Arts, Science and Commerce, said that students prefer to study Arts courses from reputed colleges."While starting this college some eight years ago we had taken permission for Arts stream also. But by observing continuous poor response of students for Arts stream, we are running only Science and Commerce streams at our Yamunanagar campus." u00a0

Stream-wise distribution
Science (English medium): 23,898
Commerce (E): 15,115
Commerce (Marathi medium): 9,221
Arts (E): 1,136
Arts (M): 1,625