Will move court against Maharashtra education department insisting on original marksheets: IGCSE students’ parents

Upset over the education department’s decision to not accept provisional marksheets for first-year junior college (FYJC) admissions, parents of students from the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) board have now decided to move court.

As per the admission booklet for this year, students from the other boards “can participate in this admission process with their provisional marksheet”, but to confirm their admission to junior colleges, the original marksheets must be submitted. The revised guideline has left several students from the IGCSE board in a lurch as those who have appeared for the May series of exams will get their marksheets only in August, by which time most admission rounds for first year junior college (FYJC) would be over. In 2018, 975 students from the IGSCE board secured admissions across colleges in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The figure for this year is not yet available.

Around 25 parents of IGCSE students are now planning to file a petition in the Bombay high court (HC) against the new rules. “With final marksheets coming only in August, they would lose out on the opportunity of getting a seat in any of the prominent colleges as most seats in these colleges would be full by then. We will challenge the discriminatory decision in the court,” said a parent.

Another parent said, “Colleges did not accept applications from IGCSE students in the ongoing zero round of admissions under the various quotas. While many have asked us to wait for the first merit list to come out, with the current rule, we will be denied admission as the marksheet is yet to come.” Despite repeated calls, Rajendra Ahire, deputy director of education, MMR, could not be reached for comment.