Despite the hype over the ‘allowed to keep term’ (ATKT) scheme of the state government for SSC students, only 643 application forms were sold on Friday in the city. As only one day is left for the sale and receipt of forms, at the most 1,500 students are expected to avail themselves of ATKT in the city when the education department had predicted that 7,000 students would utilise the facility.

“On the first day of the sale of application forms for class XI admissions for students availing ATKT, the response was considerably low. It was totally unexpected,” said Sunil Magar, deputy director of Pune division of education department. “The response is poor considering the fact that the scheme is applicable for all SSC students failed in one or two subjects,” he said.

“There are around 5,000 students who have failed in one or two subjects in March 2009 exams in Pune city. As the scheme is applicable for students appeared before March 2009, the number was expected to rise to 7,000,” said Magar.

“The low response may be due to the late announcement of the scheme. Moreover, the SSC repeaters’ exam is already over and students appeared for the exam may have thought that they should take fresh admission in June 2010 instead of going for ATKT,” said an official of education department.

“As the first term is almost over, the students might have thought that even after taking admission it will be difficult to catch up the whole year’s syllabus in just six months,” said the officer.