Mumbai: Maharashtra education department has shortened the admission procedure for first-year junior college (FYJC) students for the new academic year 2020-21 amid the rising coronavirus crisis.

Also, the government has decided to raise the quota for students with special needs (disabled) from 3 per cent to 4 per cent, while the reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) has been reduced from 16 per cent to 12 per cent.

For Social Economic Backward Class (SEBC) reservation is based on the Supreme court guidelines which direct to give 12 per cent and for the Divyang students (disabled) reservation was 3 per cent earlier but from this year it will be 4 per cent. Maratha reservation candidate will be availing 12 per cent reservation in the admission process.

Apart from this, the various junior colleges especially run and sanctioned by the Pune and Mumbai municipal corporations will reserve 50 per cent of admission quota for the students who have been pass out from the same institute. This quota is called as In-house quota. Also, the zero-round admissions for candidates, who want to opt for bifocal programmes, have been scuffled this year.

Due to this move, the candidates passing out from such schools will get benefits as well as a ray of assurance for their admissions incoming grades.

The admission reservation meant for minorities and other such communities granted under the Indian Constitutional provision will remain the same.

This year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the admission process will be fully done online. The admission process enrollment and fees will now only be paid online. The students and their parents must practice physical distancing norms and if needed there will be special arrangements for special additional rounds for admission process enrollment.