According to rumors, Uday Samant had arranged a meeting with Ajit Pawar, the finance minister, and other ministers and bureaucrats. Pawar made his decision to implement the equal weightage policy only after holding this meeting.

The state of Maharashtra has proposed a few adjustments that will take effect in 2023 with the goal of streamlining the CET-based undergraduate admissions process in Maharashtra.

According to sources, the Class 12 board exam results and the MHT CET scores would be equally weighted for UG entrance in 2023–2024. The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT CET) 2023 may also be administered more than once. The state education department has also suggested a number of additional modifications. The admissions procedure will remain the same this year, though.

The state government has “in principle” endorsed the decision on equal weighting. However, given that Maharashtra has numerous school boards, its real execution is debatable.

Equal weightage to Class 12 and MHT CET 2023 scores

Maharashtra Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant discussed the equal weighting policy in an interview with a major national newspaper. Samant gave two justifications for overhauling the entire UG admissions process:

Students are currently absent from their Class 12 lessons because they are too busy studying for the MHT CET and other competitive exams.
Despite receiving only one mark, students have been able to enroll in engineering programs by using the MHT CET results alone.

A comprehensive policy outlining the changes is also being curated as efforts are made to revamp the current UG admissions procedure. In due course, this policy will be made available to the public.

MHT CET 2023 Likely to be held multiple times

The possibility of holding the MHT CET numerous times is one of the adjustments that have been suggested. This might be comparable to the JEE Main exam, which is now administered twice. The goal is to give students several opportunities while preventing a year from being wasted.

The new session is not likely to begin before October 2022 under the current MHT CET schedule, delaying the start of the academic year. In order to combat this, the state government has suggested holding the exam earlier, in 2023. to allow for the announcement of results on July 1 and the start of the next session on September 1.

The suggested improvements currently seem excellent in theory. But it’s unclear exactly how implementation will take place. Before formally enforcing the same weightage policy, the Maharashtra government must also take into account the consistency of the grading scheme across various educational boards.