No seat in Xavier's for JAC topper

RANCHI: Hundreds of eligible students who have cleared their intermediate examinations fear wasting an entire academic year as they are being denied admission to colleges in the city. With admissions to undergraduate courses in almost all colleges coming to an end, even the state topper in arts is struggling to secure a spot at her desired institution.
Lovely Sinku, who secured the highest marks in arts from the Jharkhand Academic Council, is not getting admission to the college of her choice.
"I wanted to pursue graduation from St. Xavier's College, Ranchi, but despite being the state topper and scoring 79.4% marks, I was not given admission because, according to them, my percentage was very low," claimed Sinku. Describing how most of the seats in the college have been occupied by students from CBSE and ICSE boards, she asked, "Does this mean that students passing out from JAC board don't have a right to study in a good college in their own state?"
While ICSE and CBSE reward their high achievers generously, the state board doles out comparatively lower scores even to its best students. Consequently, even the state topper is experiencing a difficulty in getting admission while students scoring marks below 70% have extremely low chances of getting admitted to any college in the city.
Since the formation of the council, the JAC has witnessed its highest pass percentage this year. This means that the number of students passing with second and third divisions has increased. But, because of the JAC's strict marking, these students are not getting seats in colleges of the city.
On Monday, a group of students from the Jharkhand Chhatra Sangh met the vice chancellor of Ranchi University to discuss the problem of selective admissions. S Ali, the president of the association, said, "There are many students who have scored above 70% but are unable to get seats in colleges of the city. If this is the problem faced by students scoring first division marks, the students scoring marks below that will definitely not get seats in the colleges."
The students met Dr. LN Bhagat, the vice chancellor, and discussed their demands which included increasing the number of seats in colleges, requesting the government to construct new colleges to accommodate the increased number of students, and providing better infrastructural facilities. They also brought to attention to recruiting new teachers in colleges since 70% of the existing teachers are set to retire by 2017.
Following the discussion, Dr. LN Bhagat assured the students that he will take steps to solve their grievances. He said, "I will be convening a meeting with the principals of all colleges regarding increasing of seats and we will definitely approach the government to construct new colleges so all students get a chance to continue their higher education."