28 junior colleges get Maharashtra nod for bifocal programmes
A bifocal programme allows students from the science stream to skip second language and biology subjects during Class 11 and 12, and instead take a 200-mark elective like electrical maintenance or computer science.
The state government has allowed 28 junior colleges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to start offering bifocal programmes from this academic year. Experts said this move will be favourable for engineering aspirants.
A bifocal programme allows students from the science stream to skip second language and biology subjects during Class 11 and 12, and instead take a 200-mark elective like electrical maintenance or computer science.
This year, more than 13,000 students have registered for the bifocal programme until Saturday evening. The first merit list for the course will be out tomorrow.
“The [bifocal] programme helps reduce stress for students preparing for competitive exams like JEE and MH-CET,” said Shrenik Kotecha, trustee, Lakshya Prep High School and Junior College. “Most students who prepare for these exams also need to have a good HSC score and thus choose bifocal.”
Kotecha’s school, along with eleven others using the same name, is run by coaching chain Mahesh Tutorials, which received the government’s approval to open them this year. All of them offer a bifocal programme.
Experts attributed a surge in the number of bifocal aspirants over the past few years to the ever-growing demand for engineering coupled with the desire to score well in Class 12. “Students can easily score 180 out of 200 in these subjects,” said Subhash Joshi, trustee, Science Parivar, a group of coaching institutes.
Science colleges which have been allowed to add bifocal seats include Pace Junior College and TP Bhatia College in Andheri, Nirmala College in Kandivali and Pioneer English School and Junior College in Matunga.
While admissions to existing bifocal colleges would be conducted through a centralised system, those for the newly approved colleges will be conducted at the college level, officials said.
This year, the education department has granted permissions to 35 new colleges in MMR as well as allowing many of them to open additional divisions for new courses.
