Education: Teaching Is the Last Priority

As in many other states, the new academic year in Maharashtra also begins in the middle of June. Yet, it is a rare sight to see a college complete all its admissions and start all its academic activities on the first day or even in the first week of the new academic year. The admissions process itself generally goes on for such a long period that quite often a few weeks, sometimes even half a term, is used up simply in making up the class lists. This happens partly on account of the delays in the results of the qualifying examinations without which admissions cannot be made to fresh courses. The universities themselves are responsible for conducting various qualifying examinations, except the HSC examination. But no university is unduly perturbed about the dislocation of its scholarly programmes because of the malfunctioning of one of its administrative units.

The HSC examination and its results play a crucial part in the functioning of colleges because all fresh admissions to colleges are to be based upon these results. But the HSC Board of Maharashtra cannot be faulted for the dislocation in the working of the colleges, at least this year. Those results were out in the last week of May, well before the usual commencement of the new academic year. Yet, even in the first week of September, most of the engineering and professional colleges in the state have yet to begin their academic work. This is so because the admissions are yet to be completed in these colleges. Though science colleges have begun their term, the composition of their first year classes remains fluid till the admissions to engineering colleges are finalised. Many students prefer to switch over to an engineering course even in mid-term if, due to late vacancies in the merit list, they are able to get admission in an engineering college. Even in a routine year, these admissions take quite a bit of time to be completed. The normal delay is compounded this year by a special factor.