BHUBANESWAR: Students seeking admission in Higher Secondary schools can heave a sigh of relief as the State Government has relaxed the criteria for submission of income certificate while filling the application form.The Directorate of Higher Secondary Education has made it clear that income certificate is not compulsory for all candidates who are taking admission in Plus Two for the academic session 2018-19.
The certificate is mandatory for candidates who are claiming scholarship. If any applicant claiming scholarship is unable to submit the income certificate at the time of submission of Common Application Form (CAF), he/she can do the same during admission at the higher secondary School.Director of Higher Secondary Education Sundarlal Seal has informed the Principals of all Resource Centres managed by Student Academic Management System (SAMS) clarifying the requirement of income certificate for admission into Class XI.
The clarification was made after students faced a lot of inconveniences while filling application forms. Many failed to submit their forms in absence of income certificate even after standing in queues for hours together. Advocate in the Orissa High Court Kanhayalal Sharma, who took up the matter with the Director, said the provision for submission of income certificate during filling of application forms without prior intimation is unjust.
“If the School and Mass Education department had decided to make income certificate mandatory, the officials could have notified it earlier asking candidates to come with the certificate to SAMS resource centre,” he reasoned. Sharma said it is not possible to obtain the certificate within a short span of time, especially for those who do not have landed property or stay in rented accommodations.
“Last year, the Government had issued a circular clarifying that income certificate is not compulsory for e-admission. But the students were taken aback when they were asked to submit the certificate at the time of form fill up this time,” Sharma added.
Meanwhile, the Directorate has decided that caste certificate issued in favour of applicants will be validated online through the barcode number mentioned in it. The applicants have been directed to enter the correct barcode number in the CAF. If the name of the applicant does not match with the name in the certificate, it will not be validated online.
The caste certificate issued without barcode will be validated after a copy of the original certificate is submitted at SAMS Resource Centre by the applicant during submission of CAF. However, undertaking for lack of documents in any respect has been barred this time.