Palakkad: According to official data, 28,945 students who have passed the Class 10 exam are still waiting for admission to the Plus One (Class 11) course while there are only 10,440 vacant seats after the first supplementary allotment conducted by the Kerala Government. In other words, over 18,000 students may find their plans for higher education getting blocked.
The students who have not been able to join Plus One due to lack of seats belong to the northern districts from Thrissur to Kasaragod, Alappuzha and Kollam. In Malappuram district alone, 10,985 candidates have not been allotted seats and there are no vacancies for conducting a second supplementary allotment.
The number of students in other districts waiting for seats is Palakkad 4,273; Kozhikode 3,633, Thrissur 2,039, Alappuzha 1,638, Kasaragod 1,596, Kannur 1,522, Kollam 887 and Wayanad 583. There are very few vacant seats in these districts. However, the districts having the highest number of vacancies are, Kottayam 3,144, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam 1,175. Candidates from these three districts would not find it difficult to join Plus One courses.
For the supplementary allotment, 73,350 students had applied across Kerala. The applications of 542 candidates were not considered due to discrepancies. Of the remaining candidates, 43,863 were admitted to Plus One under the first supplementary allotment.
The present strength of a Plus One class is 60. Meanwhile, aided schools which had submitted a special application have been allowed to increase the number by five. Admitting more than 65 students in a Plus One class is not feasible, said authorities.
Incidentally, Kerala’s Education Minister had recently announced that all applicants would be allotted Plus One seats.