July 16, 2013, 12:00 am
The standard XI Centralized Admission Process (CAP) committee will meet on July 26 to take a call on whether to allow junior colleges to admit the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) students, who have passed their standard X by appearing in the school examination instead of the central board examination.
"As of now, the state policy bars such students from being a part of the CAP," deputy director (education) Suman Shinde said. "We have no instructions till date from the state department of school education on whether to admit CBSE school exam pass students to junior colleges under the state education board," she said. "We will decide the matter in our meeting on July 26," she added.
In a pattern over the last couple of years, the state has issued circulars allowing the CBSE school examination students to be considered for admission against the available vacancies "as a one-time exception", after the CAP is over.
The Maharashtra state board for secondary and higher secondary education recognizes only those standard X qualifications which are equivalent of its own. For instance, the CBSE board examination qualification holds equivalence to the state board qualification, but the CBSE school examination does not.
The CAP panel has been dealing with this issue ever since the CBSE, as part of its reforms to reduce stress on students, switched over to the continuous and comprehensive evaluation system and offered the choice to its students to appear for the board or the school-level examination for standard X. Those clearing the standard X CBSE school examination have no problem securing admission to standard XI in schools run by the CBSE.
However, in places like Pune where there are lesser number of CBSE high schools or junior colleges compared to those run by the state board, the issue gets more pronounced for school examination students coming from outside Maharashtra.
Even in the case of the CBSE board examination, the students are required to furnish an undertaking on a Rs 100 stamp paper, stating that their admission will be subject to confirmation after the state education board scrutinizes and grants an equivalence to their qualification.
This year, a total of 2,696 students with CBSE board examination qualification have applied for and secured admission to standard XI, according to the first list released on Monday.
