Mumbai, July 18: The education department will soon come out with a government resolution allowing students to take admission to Class XI even if they have failed up to two subjects in Class X.
School Education Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has already announced the scheme, aimed at ensuring that SSC (state board) students don’t lose a year after failing in two subjects or one. Once the order is passed, such students will be able to appear for Allowed to Keep Term (or ATKT) exams after admission to junior college.
The exams will take place in October. There is an eligibility cutoff: science students will need to have scored 40 per cent.
Students will have to reappear for the written exams. For oral exams, the marks scored on the first attempt will stay. Those who clear ATKT exams will be given fresh marksheets.
Of the 16 lakh students who appeared for SSC this year, 1.37 lakh failed in one subject and 64,000 in two.
The minister has announced that approval for new seats would be given soon to accommodate students who clear the ATKT exams. As of now, junior colleges have 248,431 seats: 38,749 in arts, 143,236 in commerce and 66,446 in science. Senior colleges will add 17,000 commerce seats with 11 new colleges having come up.
The ATKT exam will be conducted only for this year’s batch. From next year, the repeaters’ exam, held usually in October every year, will be held within one month of the board results.
–Agencies