“Protective discrimination”

The government has failed in its part. And has shunned responsibility. It has taken the easy way out in order to pacify the public. Things like reservation are a facade. They hinder and not enhance progress. Such “protective discrimination” doesn’t protect anybody.

Instead of reservation the government should see to it that it fulfils its responsibilities. Better education facilities ought to be made available to everyone. Mumbai has just 4 medical colleges; instead of increasing the number of colleges the government has tried to camouflage its inefficiency by introducing reservations to an extent that there are only about 200 seats available in the open category. As a result a worthy student loses an opportunity to study in Mumbai. This has led to undue stress and severe competition amongst young students. And this terror of not acquiring admission has been well exploited by the various coaching classes. They charge around Rs. 36,000 per subject. Anxiety is clearly visible as admissions to some of such classes for standard 12th and MH-CET were complete just after the tenth standard results were declared. So, a student who worked hard through out std. 10th and scored 90.30% was denied admission to a class (not college) of her choice!

The government should show some concern for its hard-working youth and make some seats available for those who score. It cannot make these students pay the price of its negligence by introducing ceaseless reservations. And any ways reservations don’t even benefit those who they are intended to benefit. For these students who again admission on the basis of reservation still lack the knowledge that a merit student posses. They would benefit if the government were to provide them with better educational facilities and not reservations. So, please don’t shun your responsibilities towards the citizens under the garb of reservation. And those of you who demand reservation, instead please demand for your right to quality education.

Mumbai application
Mumbai apprehension

Since no one is accountable

Tenth standard results were out on 26th June. And the rush to secure admissions began. Long queues and more long queues were in vogue this season. Though the state government did attempt to change this eternal trend of long queues by launching a website called mumbaiapplication.com. Nevertheless, the traditional pattern of long queues prevailed. Mumbaiapplication.com provided the facility of applying online to various colleges. However, it failed to get rid of the apprehensions attached to this new facility. Students and parents were skeptical. The site itself declared that, “Deputy Director, government and any of its employees carry no liability what so ever.” Furthermore, principals of various colleges had denounced responsibility for online forms, in case of any error.

Against this backdrop of no accountability, anxious students lined up outside colleges for hours on end to purchase a form, then again to submit it. Many students applied both- on-line and off-line. In this fashion spending twice as much money and time. Sheila Tiwari, state deputy director for school education, had said that, “[she] was looking for a way to introduce technology to fight admission woes.” However, these admission woes seemed to be never-ending, as students and parents stood in ceaseless queues since 27th June, while tolerating the rains and the heat.

While errors are bound to take place, nonetheless if some authority would assure rectification and guarantee admission (in case of a fault on their part), then students would have peacefully applied online, within the comforts of their homes.

Besides accountability another disadvantage was that not all colleges had registered on mumbaiapplication.com, namely Patkar, Bhavans (Andheri) and Sathaye. This site was also supposed to display the merit lists of various colleges, which were declared on 3rd July at 3.00pm. Conversely, until 12.00pm on 3rd July the merit lists of only 12 colleges were available on mumbaiapplication.com. Colleges such as Ruparel, Ruia, Jai Hind, St. Xavier’s and Mithibai had put up their merit lists on their respective sites and not on mumbaiapplication.com. Certain colleges such as Sathaye did not display their merit list anywhere on the net. In order to fulfill its claim of displaying merit lists on mumbaiapplicaton.com, the state government should make it mandatory for all colleges in Mumbai to register and upload their merit lists on mumbaiapplication.com. Thus, students can avail of all the advantages of this site.

Mumbaiapplication.com provided 24 hours access. So, students could fill and submit their forms at any time of the day. As a result, parents would not have to miss work. Moreover, mumbaiapplication.com would save all the data filled during registration and this information need not be re entered while filling many forms; thus saving much time. In fact S.S.C. students of this academic year just had to feed their seat numbers and the site would fill in other information such as marks. The use of zip cash cards was also very thoughtful since everyone does not possess a credit card. Altogether the site is a very good attempt but despite these conveniences only 25% applicants in the open category for science, 0.87% for open category commerce and 0.13% for open category arts at Jai Hind College utilized the online form facility.

If accountability was taken then this site would have proved to be a revolutionary change. And many more students could have benefited from it.