FYJC registrations dip by 40K this yr
MUMBAI: Registration figures for the ongoing first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions shows a 40,000 drop this year compared to 2020. Data released by the office of deputy director of education (DYDE) on Monday shows that nearly 2.02 lakh FYJC aspirants completed the registration process this year compared to 2.42 lakh in 2020. This dip has surprised many, especially since a higher number of students cleared Class 10 across school education boards this year.
Registered figures have highlighted a dip in applications from students across boards but the biggest drop in registrations has come from state board students. Last year nearly 2.21 lakh SSC students had registered for FYJC admissions, but this year the figure stood at 1.83 lakh. Similarly 10,050, 6,363 and 1,220 applications from ICSE, CBSE and IGCSE students were been recorded this year. Last year these figures stood at 11,110, 7,708 and 1,300, respectively.
“Every year we get a huge chunk of applications for science stream when we conduct in-house quota, management quota and minority quota admissions, but this year overall applications seem to have dipped, and it shows during admissions,” said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew’s College Bandra. While the general (common) admission rounds will begin from August 27, minority colleges are finishing admissions to minority, management and in-house quota seats currently.
This year, Class 10 board exams across several school education boards were scrapped due to rising Covid-19 cases. Results for the Class 10 batch was instead based on students’ performance in class 9 and 10 combined. This decision helped boost marks of students across school education boards. While the overall success rate of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) students was 99.5% this year, ICSE student in Maharashtra and CBSE students from the Pune region (which includes Mumbai) boasted of a 100% success rate.
Colleges are still unsure about reasons for the dip in applications, but some fear this could be because of a large number of families that left Mumbai during lockdown and moved back to their hometowns after losing jobs in the city.
“This is a worrying trend because it could either mean students who left the city due to financial constraints have now decided to pursue education in their native towns or worse, are dropping out of higher education due to family problems. The government should be studying these figures and finding out why less number of students are applying for junior college admissions,” said the principal of a college in Andheri. She added that many students from neighbouring states would have also decided to pursue education in their home states this year due to virtual classes.