Plus one admission of those children should not be denied

The government made the admission processes from accepting applications to the allotment of seats online with the good intention of avoiding irregularities and ensuring transparency in higher secondary school admissions in the state. Since then, no serious complaints have been raised in the admission process. Many traps are hidden in the science and technology that puts the world's knowledge at our fingertips. Ignorance and carelessness in technical knowledge lead many common people into such pitfalls. By the time they realize it, they will have lost much of what they deserve. Over 5000 children and their parents are in such a predicament due to a technical error in the online application for Plus One admission.

The other day, we reported that children belonging to the Ezhava/Thiya/Billava category were not included in the Plus One first allotment due to a technical fault in filling the caste column in the Plus One admission online application. The admission of more than 3,000 children has been affected in this way in the Malabar region alone. Such complaints are coming from many other parts of the state. Most of them have high scores in SSLC.

The creamy layer was introduced in 2015 for backward reservation in government higher secondary school admissions. In the application form for Plus One admission, the Ezhava reservation was initially denoted as 'E'. The government changed later changed this to 'ETB' (Ezhava/Thiyya/Billava) following complaints that it was creating difficulty for the Thiyya and Billava applicants belonging to the same category in the Malabar region. However, many children and parents still do not know that they have to fill up the ETB in the caste column. The non-creamy layer certificate received from Village Office mentions only 'OBC Hindu' and does not mention the sub-caste. The prospectus also does not clearly state that applicants from these three sections should fill the application as ETB. Therefore, many children only added OBC Hindu in the application as per the Village Officer's certificate. Those who submitted their application without filling the ETB column this way were not included in the first allotment. Neither the school authorities concerned nor the help desk, which is said to be in every school, came to their rescue. The children who approached with complaints came to know that many higher secondary school authorities do not have a clear idea in this regard.

The way to avoid repeating such mistakes is to clearly state in the prospectus to whom the ETB column in the Plus One application form is applicable and that this column should also be filled. The authorities should also give clear awareness in this regard to the school authorities and related help desks. Along with this, the government should allow those children, whose admission was denied due to a mistake made due to a lack of knowledge, to immediately correct the mistake in the application and ensure admission within the first two allotments. Let us hope that Education Minister Shri V Sivankutty will intervene and take appropriate action in this regard.