Nagpur: Nearly half of the state board Class 11 seats in Nagpur district are lying vacant this year, official admission data up to July 22 showed. Of the 1,01,205 junior college seats available across streams in the district, only 53,941 have been filled so far, leaving 47,264, or 46.7%, unoccupied.Commerce fared the poorest, with 15,843 of its 25,800 seats unfilled (61.4%). Arts followed, with 13,300 of 24,035 seats vacant (55.3%), while science performed the best, though 18,121 of its 51,370 seats, or 35.3%, are yet to be filled.Nagpur district recorded the highest proportion of unfilled seats in the division. Across the division’s six districts, 97,564 of 2,26,835 seats remained vacant (43%), with only 1,29,271 admissions recorded.The trend was similar across the division. Commerce was the worst-hit stream, with 62.3% of its seats vacant, followed by arts at 48.1%, while science, the most sought-after stream, had the lowest vacancy at 32.1%.After Nagpur, Wardha recorded the highest vacancy in the division at 45.7%, followed by Gadchiroli (40%), Gondia (39.5%), Chandrapur (38.1%) and Bhandara (37.8%).An education official attributed the large number of vacant seats to rapid expansion of colleges and changing student preferences.“About two decades ago, there were not enough seats. Many colleges sought additional divisions, while new colleges also came up. Over the years, admission capacity increased, but student numbers did not grow at the same pace. After Class 10, many students opt for polytechnic institutes, while others move to CBSE schools. As a result, a large number of seats remain vacant every year,” he said.The figures are provisional and may change as subsequent admission rounds are completed, an official said.
