Ahmedabad: Notwithstanding mass promotions being granted for Class 12 understudies this year, the number of empty engineering seats after the first round of admissions has diminished exclusively just barely.
Against 57 per cent vacant seats in both 2020-21 and 2019-20, 43 per cent engineering seats remained vacant this year after the first round of seat allotment, which was announced on Wednesday.
Among reasons cited by officials for the marginal rate of increase was that though mass promotion, several students failed to qualify for admission tests.
Further, there are 16 branches across 48 institutes, mostly in self-financed engineering colleges, where there were zero allotments.
Now, it is to be seen how many students confirm their allotment, as they have been given time till September 22 to confirm their admission after submitting the fee.
According to the seats allotted by the central admission agency, Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC), Wednesday, out of total 50,293 seats (excluding management quota and NRI seats for which institutes conduct admission on their own) 28,750 were allotted to candidates based on their merit and choice filed for branches.
The percentage of seats filled in government and grant-in-aid engineering colleges is considerably higher than that
in self-financed ones.
For instance, 90 per cent seats (out of total 10,492 seats 9,408 allotted) were allotted in 19 government and grant-in-aid colleges. On the other hand, a little more than half of this– 48 per cent-seats — in 114 self-financed colleges were opted for and thus allotted to candidates.
On the first round results this year, ACPC member secretary Prof Rajul Gajjar said, “As compared to previous years, the number of seats filled has gone up. This increase can be due to reasons like mass promotions and opening bio engineering branches for students with Biology in Class 12.”
In the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) Class 12 science results announced this year, all 1,07,264 — 63,028 boys and 44,236 girls — students were declared pass. The overall pass percentage was 71.34 per cent and 71.90 per cent in the year 2020 and 2019, respectively.
When asked about the increase in seats not proportionate with the students mass promoted, Prof Gajjar told The Indian Express, “Even though the students are mass promoted, they should be eligible too.”
As per the result compiled by the GSHSEB, a total of 293 students were given grace marks and promoted under mass promotion. Among these, 75 students are from the non-medical stream and 218 from the medical stream.
Also, with the mass promotion and evaluation on the basis of Class 10 board results, 11 and 12 unit tests this year, there was a steep rise in the number of students securing the A1 grade (99-100 marks).