With only two days left for the submission of application and option forms for first year junior college admissions, students are thronging guidance centres for last-minute advice. Though the schools are supposed to provide help to students at their own help centres, many students claim that school authorities are not guiding them correctly, resulting in their crowding outside guidance centres that are meant for out-of-state students only.

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Officials from guidance centres across the city have complained that many schools are shirking their responsibility and sending students to guidance centres to fill their forms. S Kamble, deputy education inspector, Western zone, said, “Schools have been trained to operate independently as help centres for their students. They have been given all the powers to verify, approve and confirm documents. If they have any problems, they can contact the nearest guidance centre,” he said. Kamble is also the guidance centre in-charge at Vidyanidhi Junior College, Juhu.

Another guidance centre in-charge from Charni Road said, “We were forced to send students back because we could not handle the large crowd. We are serving nearly 300 students every day and the centre is open from 9am to 4pm.”

Some guidance centres have even issued letters to schools not to send their children to them, while others say they always refer the children back to the school. "We already have a large number of people on our hands. Students coming to us from out of the state have several doubts and problems. The schools are adding to the workload. It defeats the entire purpose of setting up help centres in schools," he added.

This year, the education department had asked schools to start help centres of their own so that the number of students crowding the main guidance centres will be reduced. Schools were even offered training in the online process.