The total number of aspirants who had registered for the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) to get admission in various undergraduate engineering, agriculture, and pharmacy courses was 4.13 lakhs this year. The number is 5 percent less than the total number last year, which was 4.36 lakh.
The experts say that the dip in the number of registrations indicates that the popularity of science and its courses, especially engineering, is dwindling. The trustee of Science Parivar, Subhash Joshi, said that students are now looking for other avenues apart from engineering.
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Joshi further said many students are not opting for engineering as the profession is witnessing a lack of employment opportunities. However, the inclusion of the curriculum of class 11 in the MH-CET is also a reason for students opting out of engineering. They find difficulty in coping with the exhaustive curriculum for the test.
The exam focused only on the syllabus of class 12th until 2017. Last year, some changes were made and it was decided by the State Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) that about 20 percent of the questions of the exam will be based on the curriculum of class 11th.
The pharmacy courses, on the other hand, saw a surge in their popularity with 64,186 students registering for graduation in pharmacy courses this year. The increase was of 24 percent from last year when the total number of students to apply were 52,014. The total number of students who applied for seven technical undergraduate agriculture has risen from last year’s 52,822 to 64,619 this year, seeing an increase of 25 percent.
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Around 1.06 lakh students had applied for the centralised admission process for several undergraduate engineering courses last year. A year previous to that, the State had received about 1.19 lakh registrations which were 11 percent more than last year.
MH-CET will be conducted online this year. It will most likely be held over 12 days, between 2nd May 2019 and 13th May 2019, in two different time slots. Students can choose a day and time slot as per their convenience.