Serious questions were raised over the transparency of the Students Academic Management System (SAMS) in Odisha after students with lower marks allegedly got admissions into Plus 2 Science stream ahead of students with higher marks.
The irregularities came to the fore after some students of Fakir Mohan Junior College alleged that they have been left behind when some other students with lower marks got admissions ahead of them.
Jitendra Barik who scored 86.6 percent marks in Matric exams could not get admission in FM College. “I have not even received an intimation letter from the college. Whereas students with 81 percent score got admission in the college,” he alleged.
Another student Sk Hussain said, “I wanted to study in the FM College. Nobody intimated me about the admission. When I enquired, I saw students with 81 percent score have got admission."
As per reports, as many as 17 students with lower marks have got admission ahead of the students with higher marks in FM College.
It is pertinent to mention here that online admission was introduced in Plus-2 to curb corruption during spot admissions. However, allegations of lapses in online admission have triggered resentment among parents and students.
“Guidelines for spot admission dictate that all the remaining seats should be unreserved. There is no provision for weightage for SC, ST or anything for that matter. But in the case of FM college, some seats were reserved for some students with lower marks, possibly to favour them,” said a guardian, Jagannath Samal.
This is despite the SAMS guidelines, which clearly state that spot admissions will be done purely on a merit basis as per the number of seats available in a particular Higher Secondary school. And no weightages like NCC, Scout, and Guides will be counted during spot admissions. Moreover, intimation should be sent to students 10 times the number of available seats. But this guideline too has allegedly been violated at FM College.
Asked about the allegations, SAMS district nodal officer, Bhagabata Bhuyan said, “During manual admissions, we select students on their merit. I think there must be a technical glitch in the SAMS portal, because of which such kind of situation has cropped up.”
“There is no intention to make the students suffer. This a system-based error which will be rectified soon,” he added.
On the other hand, the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education has said there is a technical problem in the portal and students, who have been left out due to this glitch, will get admission into the college in a day or two.