Aurangabad: Good News for all the students who failed in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) board exams of the Maharashtra State Board of Education as they will now be allowed to keep terms (ATKT) like their counterparts in university courses.

It will be implemented during the admission process for the 2009-2010 academic year.

This will bring new hope in the lives of 3.64 lakh students, who failed their board exams this year but will manage to move to a higher class

Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, School Education Minister made the announcement here on Friday.

"The move has been started by the ministry to save the loss of one educational year for the failed students," he said.

Though, this move is beneficiary for only those students who have failed in a maximum of two subjects
There are total six subjects in all for both board exams that excludes environmental studies which is graded.

The students can attempt twice to clear the failed subjects in the exams conducted in October and March.

While addressing a press conference, Patil said, "There are 2.04 lakh SSC and 1.6 lakh HSC students' failures in two subjects in the board examinations conducted in February/March 2009.

This will have a great social impact as it will benefit the girl child from rural areas. The proposal was an initiative of the state board, which has been accepted by the government," he said.

"We will also refer the case to the ministry of higher education as they will have to help HSC students get admissions in degree colleges," he added.

"The junior college admissions for these students will commence only after the final list comes out, in August first week. The students will be getting on the spot admissions and will be directed to those colleges where seats are still vacant. All the deputy directors' offices in the state have been given instructions to approve the proposals for new divisions. So there will be no scarcity of seats," he avers.

From the next academic year, the ATKT students will also be allowed to apply for admissions at the same time as those that have cleared their exams.

The failed HSC students will also be able to apply for Diploma in Education colleges. These 3.64 lakh students will have to clear their SSC/HSC exams in the boards of October examination.

The move was welcomed by the Mumbai University Vice-chancellor, Vijay Khole, saying, "The move will provide relief to lakhs of students and will also provide an opportunity to pursue higher education. This will aid many students who might have failed in the exams due to illness or any untoward circumstances. Admissions in degree colleges are over, this will lead to colleges making special arrangements to accommodate these students. However, they will miss out on academic days".