admission process for standard XI will formally begin on Wednesday with the bifocal seats

The much-awaited admission process for standard XI will formally begin on Wednesday with the bifocal seats being filled through spot

admission.

According to assistant director of education Rajendra Godhne, who is in-charge of standard XI admissions, the spot admissions will be conducted at Panjabrao Deshmukh auditorium on the premises of Dhanwate National College (DNC) from 8 am. During first round, the 40% quota for candidates coming from technical background will be filled up. Ironically, for over 1,000 seats reserved for such candidates, only 28 applicants are there.

Just after that the candidates having merit list numbers from 1 to 250 will be invited for securing admissions as per their preferences. In the afternoon session, candidates with merit list numbers 251 to 500 will be invited for admissions.

"We are ready with all arrangements at the auditorium. Three computers, a big screen and a projector have been set up for smooth conduction of the admission process. The total number of seats and vacancies will be displayed on the big screen. We have also got generator back-up just in case load-shedding takes place. Arrangements for drinking water and other amenities have also been made for children and their parents," Godhne told TOI.

The education director further informed that around 800 applications were received by them from the candidates belonging to other boards, most of them from CBSE.

On Tuesday, the department had released its final merit list of 5,534 candidates on its websites. In the provisional merit list, names of 5,556 students with their allotted marks were mentioned. Interestingly, only 3,150 bifocal seats are available in the city of which nearly 2,500 seats will be filled up through centralised process, while rest will be filled up through management quota. The final merit list for science and commerce courses will be out on July 23 while the last date of admission will be July 29.

The department has delegated 35 of its officers and 16 junior college teachers to look after admission process that will continue till July 17.

Interestingly, the entire process was under the shadow of uncertainty as Bombay high court had given a stay on all admissions following state government's decision to implement 90:10 quota. However, on Monday, the court scrapped the 90:10 quota stating that it was arbitrary' and unjustifiable'.