No offline option from next year

Mumbai: The state school education department had announced that there would be no offline admissions for the academic year 2017-18. For the next academic year, the same format is going to be continued. The department has said that like last year, many rounds will be conducted till every student is allocated a seat in a college.

Last year, after the mandatory four rounds of admission, the government had allowed colleges to start the offline admission process. These admissions were a ray of hope for the students, and it involved fewer formalities. However, the department completely scrapped the offline mode as it wants all the admissions only on merit basis. Officials claimed that this move was to avoid donation-admissions which the parents took if they were not allotted in any colleges through online admissions.

Last year, due to no offline admission system, the department had to conduct eight rounds of admissions in order to allocate seat to every student.

Four mandatory rounds, two special rounds and two first-come-first-serves (FCFS) were conducted last year for the students in the Mumbai region. Principals in the city are satisfied with the removal of the offline system as they feel its fair for the hardworking students.

“Admissions absolutely on the basis of merit and percentage is a fair game. There should not be any scope of money,” said a principal from a city-based college.