Kozhikode: Another round of hectic admission for higher studies is set to commence with the publishing of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination results by the Kerala Board. Like last year the availability of seats for higher secondary Plus-One courses would be less than the number of students who passed the Class-10 exams.
As per the latest data, there should be at least 60,650 additional Plus-One seats in the state to accommodate all the students who have passed SSLC exams this year.
In all 4,21,957 students cleared it as per the results announced a few days ago. But there are only 3,61,307 Plus-One seats in the government, aided and unaided higher secondary schools across Kerala.
Five districts in the Malabar region reportedly have a shortage of 60,215 seats. There is a shortage of 24,466 seats in Malappuram district alone. Palakkad requires 10,705 seats to admit all the students who have passed SSLC, while Kozhikode needs 9,024 seats.
Scene in other districts
Similarly, there is a shortage of 9,686 seats in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Thrissur districts. Meanwhile, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki and Ernakulam districts have additional 9,251 seats that may fall vacant.
The break-up
There are 1,41,050 Plus-One seats in the government-owned schools in Kerala. Meanwhile, aided schools have 1,65,100 Plus-One seats and un-aided ones have 55,157 seats.
Besides, there are 27,525 seats in the Vocational Higher Secondary Education stream.
The shortage of seats could get worse while considering the students who have passed Class-10 exams held by other boards like the CBSE and CISCE.
The State Government authorities hope that not all students who passed the SSLC would seek admission to Plus-One courses. Several may opt for the 33,326 seats in the Industrial Training Institutes and 11,790 seats in the polytechnics, thus reducing the demand for HSC seats.