FYJC first merit list: Cut-offs witness drop of 1-3% points

Dip despite boards recording high scores in Class 10; officials say smaller colleges see higher cut-offs

MUMBAI: The first general merit list for first-year junior college (FYJC) seats was announced early on Friday, and despite the high scores awarded to Class 10 students across boards this year, the cut-offs in most popular colleges dipped by 1-3% points this year.

St Xavier’s College, a popular destination for arts aspirants, ended its first merit list at 95.2%, barely 0.6% point higher than last year.

Similarly, the cut-off at Narsee Monjee (NM) College in Vile Parle, one of the most soughtafter institutes for commerce aspirants, ended at 94%, similar to last year. Most other colleges witnessed a dip in cut-offs. The cut-off at RA Podar College in Matunga, also a popular institute for commerce aspirants, was at 92.8%—1.4% point below last year.

Similarly, the cut-off for the science course at Ramnarain Ruia College ended at 93.4%—1.4% point lower than last year.

“There’s still so much ambiguity regarding college reopening, so there’s a good chance that students who are unsure about travel once things open up might have chosen colleges closer to home instead of opting for colleges away from home this year. Every year, students coming all the way from Kalyan, Vasai, Bhandup apply for admissions,” said Hemlata Bagla, principal of Churchgate’s KC College.

“But this year, mostly those staying close by have applied.

This could be one of the reasons for a dip in cut-offs in colleges in south Mumbai,” Bagla added.

At KC College, while the cutoff for science was higher by less than a percentage point compared to last year, both other streams witnessed a dip of a percentage point in cut-offs.

Due to rising Covid-19 cases, many school education boards decided to scrap Class 10 board exams this year and instead promoted students based on their performance in the current academic year as well as their performance in Class 9.

This helped push the overall scores of hundreds of thousands of students across boards to a higher bracket, and several schools highlighted a surge in students scoring 90% and above in their batches. As per information shared by the Maharashtra state board, the number of students scoring 90% and above stood at 6.34% (104,000) in the state, as compared to 5.08% (83,262) in 2020.

“Ever since the ‘Best-5’ rule was introduced, state board students have been scoring very well, and at par with their counterparts from other boards. For years, the state board has also been boasting of 100% scorers. So this year’s results were not very different from the past few years. While the overall pass percentage increased this year, top scoring students were almost similar to last few years, so there’s no difference in the merit lists,” said the principal of junior college in the city. He added that unlike Class 12 results, Class 10 results did not bring any big surprises this year.

For the first time ever, Maharashtra state board boasted of 42 Class 12 students with a perfect 100% score. It further highlighted a 12-fold rise in 90% and above scorers as well, taking the overall success rate of the state to 99.38%. Similarly, other school education board schools, including CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and ISC (Indian School Certificate) schools also noticed a higher number of their students entering the 90% and above bracket, ultimately pushing cut-offs for degree college courses by nearly 10-13% points in the first general merit list.

Officials from the office of the deputy director in Mumbai highlighted that while cut-offs in popular colleges might have dipped, surprisingly those in smaller colleges increased this year. “State board students make up for nearly 90% of the applicants to FYJCS and the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) results this year shows a higher number of students entering the 70-85% bracket, while the number of students entering the 90% club is only slightly higher than last year. This could be one of the reasons why popular colleges haven’t witnessed a hike in cut-offs,” said the official on condition of anonymity.

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