Pune, July 06: Admission process to class XI of science, commerce and arts courses will be delayed by at least 10 days, while that of bifocal by four to five days.
The release of provisional merit list of bifocal courses, scheduled to be out on Monday, has been postponed until the final verdict on 90:10 formula. The decision was taken during an urgent meeting called by officials of the education department on Sunday.
According to an education department official, the process for science, commerce and arts courses begin only after the bifocal courses. As a result, even if the 90:10 verdict comes on Monday, provisional merit list for bifocal will be put up by Thursday followed by inviting suggestions and objections in the next two days.
Therefore, admission to rest of the three streams will see delay of at least 10 days, he said.
The hearing of the 90:10 case is expected to continue on Monday in the Bombay High Court. “The provisional merit list for 3,725 seats of bifocal courses was scheduled to be out on Monday.
However, as per the directions of the education department we have to hold it,” said V M Gaikwad, assistant deputy director (education), who is also member secretary of the class XI CAP committee.
A circular to this effect was issued by Sunil Magar, chairman of CAP committee on Sunday.
The Pune division of education department received the message on the stay on the schedule on Saturday evening. The department then decided to hold an urgent meeting on Sunday. The admission process will now be delayed by three to four days or even a week.
D N Sheth, principal of S P College and executive chairman of the admission process of class XI in Pune said the process of preparing the merit list will begin as soon as the High Court comes up with the decision on 90:10 formula.
Meanwhile, this year, the number of applications received has reduced by 10,000 compared to the total seats available in the city. There are 57,460 seats available for class XI in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad but, only 47,214 applications were received. While the response to science and commerce (English medium) stream was overwhelming, arts stream witnessed a record low response with only 731 students applying for 2,980 seats.
This year, around 8,000 seats of arts stream will remain vacant.
–Agencies