The first batch of 1,107 students who passed class 10 with grace marks have enrolled in various polytechnic institutes across Gujarat. After the Gujarat government eased rules allowing students with grace marks to enrol in polytechnic institutes, this will be the first batch of students to be eligible for diploma institutes across the state.
Only six of the 1,107 students were accepted into government polytechnic institutes, with the rest choosing private schools.
Meanwhile, nearly 45 per cent of polytechnic seats in private institutes continue to remain vacant even after the state government relaxed rules and encouraged mass promotions in classes 10 and 12 in Gujarat.
“Of the students of Class 10 who passed Maths, Science and English with grace marks, those with an aggregate of 35 per cent were considered eligible. Now, after adding the grace marks and declared mass promoted as the passing marks of GSHSEB is 33 per cent, students with 35 per cent aggregate were considered as eligible for the admission on vacant seats during these additional two rounds,” said Bhaskar Iyer, Member Secretary, Admission Committee for Professional Diploma Courses (ACPDC).
On November 5, 2021, the Gujarat government had declared that students with grace marks in Class 10 would also be eligible for admissions to diploma engineering in polytechnic institutes across the state.
Education Minister Jitu Vaghani had announced that the state government decided to do away with the eligibility criteria that barred students with grace marks to get admissions in polytechnic colleges in an attempt to fill the vacant seats seeing an opportunity for the first time as board exams for classes 10 and 12 were cancelled.
Despite these efforts and relaxations, nearly 45 percent of seats in private polytechnic colleges remain unfilled. Admissions to 25,229 of the 45,600 seats in 106 SFIs have been confirmed, leaving 20,371 seats open. Takers for government colleges reached 73 percent, with 14,050 seats filled in 31 government colleges and 5,110 seats remaining vacant.
In 2021, nearly one – third of Class 10 students (2.6 lakh out of 8.5 lakh) were mass promoted with grace marks.