Plus one admission and extra batch

Students and parents are worried about Plus One admission. In the Malabar region, admission is in crisis due to a lack of Plus One seats. There are not enough Plus One seats in the six northern districts from Palakkad to Kasaragod when compared to the number of 10th-pass students. Malappuram has the least number of seats. The number of SSLC pass students there is much higher than in other districts. However, there is no such crisis in southern districts and there are excess plus one seats as well. The allotment process this time started after the 14 batches of southern districts, where there were not enough students in Plus One last year, were shifted to Malappuram. Apart from this, 81 temporary batches and additional seats allotted last year in Malabar districts were retained as well.

This crisis in Plus One admission has been going on for years. It is unfortunate that the education department has not taken the necessary steps to solve the problem permanently. To solve this, the government-appointed committee had recommended that around one hundred and fifty batches of schools in the southern districts, where there were not enough students in the last three years, should be transferred to the seat-shortage districts. Had that been done, the current crisis could have been avoided. However, Education Minister V Sivankutty has informed that parents and students should not worry in this regard and the problem will be resolved by temporarily allocating additional batches in the problem areas. The picture will become clear only after the third phase of allotment. At present 2,22,377 candidates have been admitted in two allotments. 84,794 more seats will be given admission to in the third allotment. 3,841 seats will remain in the sports quota. It is estimated that 3,11,012 candidates will get admission after completion of all three allotments. Also, there are 23,914 seats in community quota, 37,995 seats in management quota and 54,585 seats in unaided quota in aided schools. When all these are added up, there will be 4,27,506 seats. Total SSLC qualifiers this year are 4,17,944. The Education Department explains that seats will remain vacant even after everyone gets admission because of this.

Not only is there a shortage of seats, but the biggest difficulty is getting admission in the preferred stream in preferred schools. Compared to last year, the number of students who got A+ in all subjects in the state is almost a quarter lakh higher this year. This is likely to increase in the coming years. Therefore, it is more appropriate to give admission based on marks rather than grades. Instead of solving the problem by allocating temporary batches, the government should also consider allocating permanent batches.