Page 24 - EW December 2020

Education News

Pandey, director of the Ahl- ment (October 2014-
con Group of CBSE-affiliated November 2019) and
schools and board member enforced by the MVA
of the National Progressive following dire threats
Schools Conference. of a state-wide agita-
With public opinion veering tion by the influential
around to the viewpoint that Maratha community,
children are as much at risk has been consistently
at home as in school (see edit, opposed by educa-
p.16), pressure for re-opening tion NGOs and gen-
schools, subject to parental eral quota students
consent and strict implemen- who filed a flood of
tation of safety protocols by writ petitions in high
institutional managements, is and Supreme courts.
rising. In the circumstances the According to them,
Central and state governments Maratha reservation activists: dire threats reserved quotas in
would do well to pay attention the state’s higher
to the advice of experienced educa- means that the quota reserved for education institutions (HEIs) — for
tionists than continue to procrasti- the Maratha community under the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes,
nate on this vitally important issue. Socially and Educationally Backward other backward castes and several
Autar Nehru (Delhi) Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, is stayed nomadic tribes, a special 10 percent
until a Supreme Court appointed quota for economically weaker sec-
MAHARASHTRA 11-judge bench confirms its constitu- tions of society (2019) and the 16 per-
Reservations tional validity. cent SEBC quota (reduced to 12 per-
cent by the Bombay high court) — add
To mollify and appease the power-
quagmire ful Maratha community (which consti- up to 75 percent seats being reserved
tutes 33 percent of Maharashtra’s 115
for special categories to the exclusion
million population), the MVA coali- of merit students with better class X
he state government has been tion government postponed all online board exam scores. Anti-quota pro-
forced to resume online ad- admissions until this additional quota testers have highlighted that the ad-
Tmissions for 210,482 first year was validated by the Supreme Court. ditional quotas decreed by populist
junior college (FYJC) students after However, with the academic calen- state governments to appease caste
the Bombay high court (November dar of FYJCs, which begin classes in vote banks is a gross violation of the
24) reprimanded it for the inordinate August-September, being delayed 50 percent ceiling imposed by the
delay in concluding online admissions by a whole semester, a Bombay high Supreme Court in Indira Sawhney’s
for the academic year 2020-21. Ear- court division bench passed strictures Case (1993).
lier, following a Supreme Court stay against the state government, forcing n 1950, when the Constitution of
order (September 9) of a Maharash- the decision to proceed with the pend- IIndia was promulgated, the 22.5
tra high court judgement allowing ing online admissions. reserved quota for the historically op-
reservation of a 12 percent quota in Maharashtra follows a complicated pressed and vilified scheduled castes
government higher education insti- FYJC admissions process with six of and tribes was universally acclaimed
tutions for the state’s Maratha com- its cities including Mumbai, Pune, as overdue social engineering. Since
munity, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik and Au- then with OBCs (other backward
— Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress) coalition rangabad admitting students through classes/castes) and now even the rela-
government had suspended online ad- a centralised online admission pro- tively advanced and powerful Maratha
missions on September 10. With only cess, while the rest of the state con- community demanding reserved quo-
110,348 of the total 320,830 student ducts offline admissions. Thus, while tas in higher education, affirmative
applicants having secured admission most colleges conducting offline ad- action has become a quagmire. With
in the first merit list released in Au- missions completed the process be- the majority of students in HEIs ad-
gust, 66 percent (210,482) of school- fore the Supreme Court stay order, mitted for considerations other than
leaving students opting to join 1,603 students in Maharashtra’s more de- academic merit, it’s hardly surprising
state board affiliated junior colleges veloped cities had to bear the brunt of that not even one of India’s 1,008 uni-
have missed a whole semester of FYJC political populism. versities — some of them of over 150
education. The contentious SEBC Act, 2018, years vintage — is ranked among the
The resumption of admissions legislated by the previous BJP govern- Top 200 in the annual WUR (World

24 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2020