Pupil’s suicide stirs Assembly

A day after a Navi Mumbai student committed suicide for not getting offline admission for Class 11, school education minister Vinod Tawde clarified in the Assembly on Friday that all admissions for the junior colleges are only through online medium and appealed to parents not to fall prey to promises of offline admissions.

MLAs from Shiv Sena raised the issue of how the ongoing admission for the junior colleges has created chaos among the students and the parents. MLAs Sunil Prabhu and Pratap Sarnaik alleged that it is the government’s negligence that a few educational institutions are luring parents to give offline admissions and collecting money from them. The issue of the student who committed suicide was also reflected in the House, with some demanding action against the institutions going for offline admissions.

Pushpa Suryavanshi, who had secured 81.4 per cent in her Class 10 exams, committed suicide after realising that she was not going to get offline admission in a junior college where she had paid Rs 20,000.

“The Supreme Court has made it clear that there won’t be offline admissions. The online admission process will be followed up till the last student gets admission. We appeal to the parents that there is no offline admission and please do not fall prey to it, as it is illegal,” Mr Tawde said in the House. “I have inquired the matter of the suicide. Pushpa Suryavanshi wanted admission in a particular college and she was told that offline admission can be sought. She paid Rs 20,000 for that and was later told that she won’t get the admission.

A kind of atmosphere is creating false hope among the parents about offline admissions. But let me clear that we are not having offline admissions,” he informed the House.