Flaws in Spot Admission
Students and parents alike have complained that the drive for spot admissions by all the institutes of the city has in many instances deprived some deserving students who could not make it on the day of the admissions. There have been cases where a student fulfilling the requirements set has missed out on the seat which were taken by someone through spot admission or on a first cum first basis. The parents have also viewed spot admissions as a way of cashing in on the insecurities of the students who do not want to risk losing their seats. Heads of various institutes have however defended spot admission as a procedure of intake of students.
St. Edmund’s principal Dr Lamare said that the idea behind spot admission was to take those deserving students who want to be a part of St. Edmund’s. “Many keep Edmund’s as the second or third option. So I would be happier if students with lower percentage but with an intention to study in Edmund’s join the institute rather than others,” he said.
St Anthony’s principal Fr Rajendran accepted that spot admissions do deprive some deserving students which can be termed as unfair.. He, however, added that at the same time it would also be unfair to deny admission to someone who has secured 85 per cent marks just on the pretext that the institute wants to wait for the candidates with higher percentages.
“The sole idea behind spot admission is to assure someone who has done well that is seat is secure,” Rajendran said.
Fr Rajendran also stated that nothing much could be done about the plight of CBSE students who want admission in the school. “I have a list of CBSE students who have secured more than 90 per cent but are not getting seats. It is unfair but we have to also accommodate other students who come through the Catholic or Management quota apart from the Anthonians who seek admission.”
St. Mary’s vice principal said that though they have a number of seats at offer in the spot admissions, they are enough provisions in place to make sure that students are not victimized.
REACTIONS…
“The spot admission system is flawed and the good students are deprived from taking admission in their preferred institute. The government must take note of this fact and streamline the process”, retorted an upset parent whose son was denied admissions in an institute of his choice and now had to take up admission in a ‘lesser known’ college. “When the National Assessment and Accreditation Council come and rate these institutes, why can’t they look at how the admission is going on and frame some proper guidelines?”
The teaching fraternity also had to add to the selection procedure and a teacher from St. Edmund’s College mentioned that admissions should have been closed after the seats were filled up and not dragged beyond the point of explanation. “The delay is not justified. This only highlights the inefficiency on our part in not being able to show the students their admission status. There lies absolutely no reason to delay and amplify the anxiety of the anxious students.” In reply to these, sources from the committee added that the delay is inevitable as there are applications falling in the number of hundreds and it takes time to screen them and put up the results. The Second and Third list comes up because many of the students do not wait for the list to appear and take up admissions in other colleges and seats are left vacant. “There should be more transparency in all of this. The list of the reserved candidates should be highlighted separately along with the list of the other candidates who have got admissions, not to forget the number of allotted seats. Everything should be put up for the general public to see,” commented a source from St. Edmund’s College.