The higher secondary Plus-One admission is expected to be a smooth affair for the 2023-24 academic year. The Kerala Government has decided to retain the additional Plus-One batches that were allowed last year to ensure that there wouldn’t be any shortage of seats this year too.
Around 3.85 lakh students are likely to get Plus-One admission this year too, said Education Minister V Sivankutty.
He had earlier announced that the 81 temporary batches that were allowed last year would be retained.
There would be less demand for Plus-One admission for the upcoming academic year as the number of students who have qualified for higher studies this year is 5,439 lower than last year. Meanwhile, the number of Class-10 students who scored A-plus grades for all subjects have gone up, reveal the results of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination declared the other day.
Even though Prof Karthikeyan Nair Committee that was appointed to study about the problems related to Plus-One admission had recommended allowing new batches and reshuffling the old ones, it wouldn’t happen this year. The political pressure against moving batches to other districts and the financial burden of creating new batches prevent have dissuaded the government to go for rejigs.
Likely number of seats
It is estimated that there would be 3,60,692 Higher Secondary Education seats and 33,030 Vocational Higher Secondary Education seats up for grab this academic year. Besides, there are 61,429 seats in Industrial Training Institutes and 9,990 seats in polytechnics.
The students could also opt for enrolling in open schools. So, the government hopes that there wouldn’t be any seat crisis even if more number of students who had studied central syllabus apply for the Plus-One courses.
Last year's situation
Last year, 3,85,909 candidates, including the students who came from schools that follow central syllabus, were admitted to the Plus-One courses. Eighty-one temporary batches were allowed and the marginal seats were increased up to 20% in some schools in Malappuram district before the admission process had begun. However, as per the numbers, around 47,772 seats, including 18,811 merit seats remained vacant in both government and aided schools.
Plus-One classes from July
Plus-One classes are expected to commence on July 5.
The admission process to Plus-One courses would be completed by June and the classes are likely to begin on July 5, stated Minister Sivankutty.
Last year, Plus-One classes had begun on 25 August.
The minister added that the students would get 50 additional working days if the classes beginin the first week of July.
The next SSLC exams have been tentatively scheduled to begin from March 4, 2024 onwards.
The Plus-Two results of the 2022-23 academic year would be published on May 25.