A day after the state government approved the best-of-five system for admission to junior colleges,the SSC camp is not very optimistic about the move and insists that it is either the percentile or the 90:10 quota system that can bring about uniformity in First Year Junior College (FYJC) admissions. The state education department has introduced best-of-five to bring about parity between SSC and other educational boards. The policy was approved by chief minister Ashok Chavan on Monday. However,after the fiasco over the implementation of the percentile system and the 90:10 system,the state has invited suggestions and objections from teachers,students and parents on its website till February 15 before finalizing the policy. According to the best of five system,the marks obtained by a student in his or her five top-scoring subjects will be added,discounting the subject in which he/she has secured the lowest marks. The system has not brought much cheer to SSC students and teachers Sunita Godbole,member of the Parents Teachers Association United Forum,said that introducing this system is not enough. The FYJC admission scenario still remains unfair for SSC students. Not only is the marking system more lenient for the CBSE and ICSE students but also the fact that they have to appear for only two languages makes it much easier for them to score higher than SSC students, said Godbole. Jayant Jain,president of the All Indian Parents Teachers Association,said that the system is very ambiguous and has loopholes. If a student secures the least marks in mathematics or science,will he be allowed to take admission in the science stream. He scores the lowest in English,will he be considered for the Arts stream? Until these questions are answered,we cannot say whether the new system will be beneficial, said Jain. Anushka Dand,a standard 10 student of an SSC school in Mulund,said,The system is not good in the long run because students will start ignoring the subject in which they are weak. However,the CBSE and ICSE schools have welcomed the move. Both 90:10 quota and percentile systems were heavily opposed by CBSE and ICSE because they felt it gave more advantage to SSC students.
