The Bombay High Court heard the petition filed by ICSE/CBSE students regarding the syllabus of the CET question papers for the FYJC admissions. Reacting to the same the High Court of Bombay raised questions on the School Education Department and sought a reply if it will be able to provide the different question papers to students of state and central board. The application form of FYJC CET has commenced from July 20, 2021, and will end on July 26, 2021.
As it is well known that Maharashtra Colleges will be conducting CET for admission of eligible students to the first year of Junior College. Nevertheless, once this news broke the students of the ICSE board have been demanding a separate syllabus and question paper.
According to the student’s body, if the CET paper is based on the syllabus of the State board, then it will prove fatal to students of other boards. The main reason for this agitation lies in the decision regarding the newly devised syllabus of CET. According to the Education Department, Maharashtra, the questions asked in the CET paper will be based on English, Maths, Science and Social Sciences.
However, as per the rules of the ICSE curriculum, the candidates are given an option to choose amongst Arts, Science and Commerce in Class 8th itself. In this scenario, the candidates need clarification from the department. whether those who have dropped the subjects i.e. Maths and Science will be eligible to appear for the examination. Additionally, the petition also reads that the ICSE Social Science syllabus is also different from the syllabus of the state board.
In that case, the candidates may not be able to perform well in the FYJC examination.
The petition also questioned the reason for conducting the CET physically in these tough times of pandemic. As per the official notice of the state government, appearing in the CET is mandatory and admission in Junior college will be entirely based on the marks scored by the candidate in the exam.
After going through the petition and hearing both sides, the HC sought an answer from the state if it is willing to fulfil the demands of the CBSE and ICSE students. In the event of a negative possibility, the High Court has asked the State Education Department to devise any other criteria to assure that justice is served to students.
Upon hearing both the parties, the court ordered both the parties i.e. state government and petitioners to file for affidavits separately before the next hearing that will be held on July 28, 2021.
