Crisis in Plus One admission; Malabar faces acute shortage of seats

Thiruvananthapuram: Thousands of students stare at an uncertain future upon completion of the first two allotments for Plus One admission, as they are unable to get a seat or admission in their favourite subject in their school of choice.

What has resulted in the crisis is the lack of enough seats in the Malabar region. Even those who have secured A+ and A1 grades for all subjects are not able to get admission in their preferred stream due to the flaws in the admission criteria.

In Malappuram district, where the shortage of seats is the worst, only 34,183 of the 81,022 applicants have got allotment so far. A total of 46,839 candidates are out. This includes children who got A+ in all subjects. Only 13,438 reserved seats are left for allotment.

According to the figures presented at the District Development Committee meeting by the Higher Secondary Department, there are no seats for 12,816 applicants, even if management and community quota seats in aided schools and seats in unaided schools are added to the allotment process. Palakkad, Kozhikode, and Kasaragod districts too are facing similar crises.

The third allotment is on July 1. Minister V Sivankutty had said the other day that action would be taken to resolve the seat shortage after that. However, most students who did not get admission after the main allotment phase were likely to join unaided schools and others. Classes will begin on July 5.

There were indications of a shortage of seats in the Malabar region when the results came out. The government only retained the 81 temporary batches, and the temporary seats increased last year and shifted 14 vacant batches in the southern districts to Malappuram.

With the rearrangement of 14 batches, only 910 seats have been increased in Malappuram. Though the V Karthikeyan Nair Committee appointed by the Government had recommended that the 150 batches in the southern districts, which have fewer children for three years, should be shifted to Malabar, no action was taken.

Admission on the basis of date of birth and name

Though there is no shortage of seats in the southern districts, many complained they did not get admission in their favourite stream in their preferred school.

The reason is that the admission criteria continue to be unscientific, while the number of A-Plus holders rose by 25,000 from last year. The only way out is to consider marks instead of grades and do away with the existing weightage for admission to the same school where a child has studied.

There have been complaints for long that it is unscientific to take the date of birth and the initial letter of the name of the candidate also as the criteria for admission.

Though the High Court ordered that entering marks along with the grade in the SSLC Certificate should be considered, the government took the stand that a decision would not be taken in haste.