Confusion still reigns over best-5 policy

MUMBAI: With the best-5 policy, high scorers across all boards -SSC, CBSE and ICSE-are a dime-a-dozen. But the online admission system to junior college has introduced a level of uncertainty, and students are worried about whether they will get a seat in a college of their choice even with their high scores.
State board students who base their best-5 score taking their maths score into consideration will have to calculate their percentage with 550 as the total marks.But for students who choose to exclude maths, the total will be 500. The total for ICSE and CBSE board students also stands at 500 marks. Even students from ICSE and CBSE boards count their overall total at 500 marks.
Students and parents say they do not know how the Maharashtra state board is deciding their scores and the cut-offs for the merit lists.
Last year, many students who had performed well in their boards -distinction and above-found themselves without a seat in a college even after the education board announced five merit lists online. Good marks do not guarantee you getting into a good college, said one student.
Sixteen-year-old Dhruvi Mehta, who has been seeking the help of officials from a guidance centre in Andheri, said: "I checked the cut-offs for all the colleges that I want to apply to, but I am not sure what to base my scores on to get the right percentage."
Many students have been visiting guidance centres trying to get answers to their queries. An official from the directorate of education told TOI, "All marks will be calculated out of 500 for students from all boards. All students have to do is feed in the data. The computer will do the calculations." A similar approach was taken by the education department last year too.