St Xaviers College, Ranchi, is one of the premier cradles where limited seats are on offer

After matriculation success, seat failure.

Several thousand young boys and girls in Ranchi, who have cleared their Class X examinations, conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) this year, will miss admission chance to elite city colleges because of the perennial seat crunch to which state education mandarins are yet to find a permanent solution.

That the success rate in 2014 has been higher by two per cent compared with last year will only add to the frustration of not finding a berth in some of the best cradles in the capital.

A rough estimate shows 50,000 candidates will vie for around 20,000 seats in nine premier institutions, including St Xavier’s College, Ranchi Women’s College, Gossner College and Doranda College. All these cradles have just 640 berths each in arts, science and commerce disciplines.

The state also runs 12 high schools in and around Ranchi, with a cumulative seat count of 3,000, but both the standard of academics and infrastructure support is question. On the other hand, schools affiliated to other boards such as ICSE and CBSE are almost out of reach for JAC candidates because of their high cut-off demand.

No wonder students are a worried lot.

“I have decided to apply in three city colleges. Even though I have scored 60 per cent, my chances of admission in science stream are very slim because of the limited number of seats at intermediate level,” said Mithilesh Singh, who cleared his matriculation from Marwari High School, Upper Bazaar.

Father N. Tete, principal of the autonomous St Xavier’s College, understands the teenager’s predicament.

“The matriculation results, declared on April 29, celebrated a success rate of 75.30 per cent compared with 73.15 per cent last year. We are not sure whether so many children will get admission in the few good colleges in the city. Our seats are limited and rules of admission strict,” he said.

Some colleges, including St Xavier’s and Ranchi Women’s, opened their form windows on May 2. Others like Gossner, Marwari College, SS Memorial and Nirmala College will do so on Wednesday. An admission form is priced between Rs 300 and Rs 350.

Assistant professor of physics at Doranda College Brijesh Kumar expressed helplessness.

“What can we do? The problem is same every year. More than 1,000 students apply for every stream, but the number of seats in each is 640. We are forced to choose. It is upto the council to increase berths at intermediate level,” he said.

N. Raziuddin, pro-vice chancellor of Ranchi University that exercises jurisdiction over city colleges, shrugged responsibility. “We at RU are only concerned with degree and postgraduate classes in constituent cradles. The intermediate section is JAC’s responsibility.”

Council secretary Sushil Kumar Roy claimed they were not averse to the idea of increasing seats. “But, there is a procedure. Inter colleges, which have adequate infrastructure to accommodate more students, should approach us with their proposals. Till date, no college has applied,” he reasoned.

Moral of the story: average students of Ranchi will continue to fight a tough fight for higher education.

Suggest a permanent solution to this perennial problem.

Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com