Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala General Education Department is planning to allot extra batches for the higher-secondary Plus One courses on a temporary basis in the districts of Malappuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Wayanad where the number of applicants far outnumbered the number of seats.
A final decision on the matter will be taken after taking into account the number of students who are going to apply for the supplementary quota.
The State Cabinet meeting to be held on Wednesday is expected to give a green signal for the hike in Plus One batches and seats. Later, orders will be issued for the same.
The number of students in a Plus One batch has already been hiked from 50 to 60. Even if five more seats are allotted in a batch, it is not possible to accommodate all the students. The highest number of students, who did not get admission, belonged to Malappuram district.
Current vacancies
Around 2,500 seats were left vacant when the admission to the community quota was over on Monday. After the second allotment, 37,545 seats remained vacant. So, the total number of vacant seats has crossed 40,000. The hike in batches and seats would be finalised after segregating the students on the basis of the options given for Science, Commerce and Humanities in their application for supplementary allotment.
More batches will have to be allotted for the Science group for which there is a great demand. Of the total 4.25 lakh Plus One aspirants, 3.06 lakh has got admission so far.
Meanwhile, 34,423 seats are lying vacant in unaided schools. Even after filling all these seats, it is estimated that more than 30,000 students will be left out from the admission process.
Education Minister V Sivankutty informed the Assembly on Monday that the subject-wise shortage of Plus One seats was mostly felt in 50 taluks in the State. There is seat shortage for the Science group in 36 taluks, Humanities in 41 taluks and Commerce in 46 taluks.
The Opposition UDF staged a protest in the Assembly during the Question Hour on Monday, alleging that the government was unnecessarily delaying a decision on hiking the Plus One seat, putting the future of students at stake.
Supplementary allotment
The application for supplementary allotment as part of the single window admission to Plus One course can be filed from 10 am on Tuesday.
The supplementary allotment aims to give one more chance to those who could not apply till now and those who have not got admission in the first allotment.
For more details, visit the website: www.admission.dge.kerala.gov.in.
Those who have got admission in any one of the quotas or those who have acquired higher-level certificates or those who have not taken admission even after getting allotment are barred from applying for the supplementary quota.
But those who could not take admission even after getting allotment because of wrong entry of details in the records will be given a chance to submit a new application.
The deadline for submitting the new applications and the corrected applications is October 28 at 5 pm, the Director of the General Education Department has said.