Even as the Bombay High Court has given the go-ahead to the state government’s Allowed To Keep Term (ATKT) scheme for SSC students, the issue before education department now is how to accommodate the students who will avail themselves of the scheme as the court has asked the government to extend the scheme to not only students who appeared in March 2009 — as was decided earlier — but also to those who had appeared for the previous SSC exams.

The High Court recently upheld the government decision to extend the ATKT scheme to SSC students who may have failed in one or two subjects on condition that the student taking the scheme should clear his/her subjects in October or March exams of this academic year (2009-10).

When the government announced the scheme in August, all the divisions of education department were ready with their math on how many more students would be required to accommodate. However, the scene has changed now as students who have appeared for previous exams will also be eligible for the scheme.

In Pune division, for example, there were 5,000 students who had failed in one or two subjects in the March 2009 SSC exams. This means that a maximum of 5,000 seats were required. But now, this number will go up, given the latest High Court order.

Subsequently, the education department has started redoing its math. “We will take a review of how many seats we can increase in the present scenario. The procedure of admission is still to be decided,” said Sunil Magar, deputy director of education department, Pune division.

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