’Keep it simple, go offline’

Four days prior to the deadline, college principals and Aaditya Thackeray meet Education Minister Rajendra Darda with the request to cancel online admission, as they say it is confusing many aspirants

'Keep it simple, go offline'

Nearly 100 days into the online admission procedure to first year junior college (FYJC) at institutions across the city, Yuva Sena President Aaditya Thackeray and other city principals have joined forces to crusade for its cancellation, claiming that the system is a failure, having caused inconvenience and mayhem among students.

The admission process, which commenced on June 22, was scheduled to be concluded on August 10.

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They complained that the admission procedure had given rise to utter chaos, keeping many aspiring FYJC candidates out of colleges. Thackeray joined the meeting to lend strength to their demands.

Speaking to MiD DAY, the young Sena leader said, "We questioned the validity of the online admission procedure. The system is a failure, as it created confusion among students, many of whom were randomly allocated colleges.
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Adding to the confusion was poor internet usage among students, and slow servers used by colleges.

The minister has assured us that he will be appointing a committee, comprising professors, reporters, PTA representatives, and education experts to investigate the matter. The committee will submit its report in 15 days, after which decisions will be taken."

Thackeray suggested that only a small part of the admission procedure be concluded online he urged the minister to instruct principals to sell their forms online, hard copies of which would be downloaded and filled out by students and submitted at the college offices.

Jayant Jain, president of the All India Federation of PTA, said, "It is true that there is scope for improvement in the online admission.

But the system should not be scrapped. In fact the entire procedure should be conducted online. However, there should be complete transparency in the online admission procedure."

T Shiware, principal of KPB Hinduja College and chairman of Non-Government College Principals' Association, said, "We requested the honourable minister to scrap the online admissions, and return to the old offline system. More than 100 days have been wasted already."

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