St. Edmund’s College, one of the oldest and reputed institutes of this city presented their criteria as follows:
“For admissions into the Science stream, the bar has been set at 75% aggregate (calculated from English or Alternative English and MIL), with 80% in Science (Theory) and 80% in Maths (Theory)
“For admission in Arts, the bars have been reduced to 75% aggregate and 75% in English.”
Commerce seems more reachable with the aggregate being set at 70% and the other necessity being 55% for Maths.
Criteria being set, the other factor is the number of seats. As per the statistics provided by Dr S Lamare, Principal, St. Edmund’s College, There are 240 seats in the Science stream and 120 seats in Arts and Commerce alike. “The demand for Science is very high and so we have to look to accommodate as many students as possible”. He added that competition was getting tough and apart from following the State Government’s norms, the college could not ignore merit with regards to admissions. “We have kept the procedure as fair and as transparent as possible. Direct admission is granted to students who meet the requisite criteria, no questions asked. Apart from this, we follow the reservation policy of 60% reservation for local students”.
When questioned if there were any special considerations for the students belonging to St. Edmund’s School, Dr Lamare mentioned, “We cannot ignore students passing out of our institute. Anyone with 60% and above is welcome to join the Higher Secondary Section.” He also stated that there were special provisions for the Physically Challenged students and they are given Direct Admissions irrespective of their marks.
Briefing on the ‘Spot Admission’ scenario Lamare said, “For example in Science, we have 240 seats out of which 160 are filled up in spot admission. The remaining seats are left vacant. If we want, all these seats could have been filled up within the first two days of admission, however we have to realize that we are catering to the whole of Meghalaya and also the North East so our last date is the May 26th to give everyone a fair chance to submit the forms,” Lamare added.
St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School, on the other hand, has set rather high standards in their selection procedure, which by no means appears flawed but provides a platform for the ‘students with merit and others alike’ to work on their studies for some splendid results.
A brief interaction with the St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School Principal, Fr. Rajendran, shed light on the entire process of admission and selection which was being followed by them.
“We at St. Anthony’s are not here only to swipe off the cream but also to cater to the educational needs of the student community. The process is simple and based purely on merit.” Fr. Rajendran said.
“60% of the seats in all the streams are filled by Direct Admission for which the criteria is 85% and above. This is entirely on a first come first serve basis and followed for the first day only”, Fr Rajendran asserted. He also added that on the following day of the admission procedure, 20% of the seats are filled up based on merit.
The St Anthony’s Higher Secondary School has about five sub categories for incorporating students under the School banner.
1. Direct Admission – 60% of the total seats are for students securing the required percentage which have been previously set.
2. Merit Based Admission – A certain number of seats are allotted to students who do not fall under the criteria of Direct Admission but have very good percentage and deserve admission into the institute.
3. Anthonians – Round about 20 seats are reserved for students passing out from St Anthony’s and the selection process is purely based on merit.
4. Catholic – 15 seats are allotted for this category.
5. Management – 10 to 15 seats are left vacant under this tag and this primarily caters to the needs of students from rural areas and students belonging to institutes run by the same congregation.
Fr Rajendran also informed that in Commerce and Arts streams, with 160 and 140 seats respectively, all go through merit list because most of the students do not fulfill the criteria for spot admissions.
St. Mary’s College, an institute that dreams of imparting an inclusive education, reaching out to students from the socially challenged areas and diverse backgrounds had seemingly lower bars which could be attained by the ‘average students’. This interestingly becomes essential considering the fact that the standards set by some institutes are rather very high and nears the verge of squashing the dreams of studying in a reputed institute in Shillong.
Perhaps what sets St Mary’s College apart is their decision to reserve all seats for local students in class XI Science and Arts.
Drifting from the general ‘high-level criteria’s’ for spot admissions of the MBOSE students in the Science stream of the college, an aggregate of 65 per cent marks is required along with 55/80 each in Science and Mathematics respectively. For other boards, it goes up to 70 per cent aggregate and 75 per cent each in Mathematics and Science. For spot admissions in the Arts section, the required criterion is 65 per cent marks in aggregate and 60 per cent and 65 per cent in English and Social Science respectively. The institution has an intake capacity of 100 in the Science stream, Arts day shift 180, morning shift 100. Out of the 100, 80 seats are given out in merit basis whereas the remaining 20 are given to the poor, needy students who deserve the seat.
The spot admission is open only for a day in which the students fulfilling the criteria are accomodated. “We have kept our qualifiers low so as to cater to not just the creamy layer of students but accommodate as many as we can while abiding by our intake capacity,” said St. Mary’s vice principal.
Adding to this view, a lecturer commented, “St. Mary’s is still continuing with its promised missionary zeal and commitment – to cater to the poor and the needy. This is why we do not make a big show of the marks in the form of advertisement or compromise with any of the commitments for example, dress code etc.”
Apart from the various reservations and slots, even St. Mary’s College has provisions to cater to the needs of the rural community and RNDM Institutes, which are institutes from far away places like like Umsning, Marbisu, Cherrapunji and Tluh belonging to the same congregation.
Lady Keane College: Another prominent name in the field of imparting education is Lady Keane College, which has its own selection procedure, not differing from the others. Position Holders or those securing an aggregate of 80% and above get Direct Admission. The principal, Lady Keane College, Dr C Massar shed some light in the selection of candidates saying, “The criterion for spot admission in Lady Keane is 80 per cent (Science) marks in aggregate. The rest are taken on a merit basis out of the theory marks. We keep some seats for the CBSE students who get their results later, but making sure of the fact that some seats are allotted to the students coming in from the rural areas. Priority is given to MBOSE.”
To sum up, no one is denied from the ‘right’ to education. The colleges have made sure that most of the students get a fair chance to study. Provisions are also made by St. Mary’s College and Lady Keane College in helping the students not having a strong financial background. “We consider cases where a student may not be able to pay fees on the spot admission day. They are directed to pay a nominal fee and the subsequent balance can be cleared later on,” stated Dr Massar. The vice principal of St. Mary’s College also had to add in this regard saying that they allowed students, who could not arrange the money on time, to pay the fees later.