Students seeking admission to Sikkim Government B.Ed College at Soreng in West Sikkim have asked the state education department to make public the basis on which successful candidates were selected.

The students said 1,225 candidates had applied for 150 seats in the state’s lone government B.Ed college. Unlike in the previous years, no entrance examinations had been held this year because of Covid-19 and the government had said admission would be granted on the basis of the marks secured by candidates in the graduate and postgraduate examinations.

However, the students allege, when the list of the selected candidates was released by the college last week, it neither had the names nor the marks of the candidates and only their application numbers.

“The department must come out with the names and marks of the candidates so that we are satisfied that the selection was made on merit as promised. We are demanding transparency in the selection process,” said Lal Bahadur Bhujel, one of the candidates.

Bhujel said they had come to know that many candidates with lesser marks, too, had been selected.

Bhujel was among three students who met senior officials of the education department, including G. P. Upadhyaya, additional chief secretary and head of the department, in Gangtok on Wednesday with their demands. “We put forth our demands and they asked for four days time to resolve the issue,” said Bhujel.

Another point of contention of the candidates was that the department was trying to shift the goalpost mid-game by claiming quotas for the economically weaker. “At the time of applying, it was very clearly stated out of the 150 seats, 20 would be reserved for serving teachers, 10 for candidates without COI (Certificate of Identification), three for differently-abled and the remaining 117 for COI holders,” said Bhujel.

This, he said, should not be changed. “We will not accept the allocation of even a single additional quota. If the department wants to provide more quota, it should scrap the present admission process and conduct fresh admission.”

Upadhyaya said a meeting of officials of the department concerned and college authorities would be held on Thursday and a solution worked out.

“We will hold a thorough discussion and work towards finding an amicable solution.”