College admission process stumbles
With only two days remaining, the government's fresh decision to wrap up the college admission process online seems to be stumbling, leaving students and guardians on tenterhooks.
The government this year has taken the ambitious initiative to digitise college admission in a bid to discipline the process. Accordingly, the education ministry, after receiving students' applications online or through SMS, yesterday published online separate list of students for each college. It did so since no college is entitled to admit students whose names do not appear on its list.
The task of preparing separate lists for 11 lakh college (class XI) admission seekers was not only Herculean but also marked by technical glitches. Very predictably therefore, the government delayed the process for four days before it uploaded the first lists of over 10.93 lakh students on www.xiclassadmission.gov.bd.
A number of reputed colleges in the capital and other districts, however, complained that they could not download the complete lists of students to be admitted for their respective institutions.
The lists, even when properly downloaded, are flawed in many cases, said teachers and students.
The last date for admission, as decided by the government, was June 30. But failing to publish the list on time, the education ministry extended the time by a day.
Faced with complaints of flaws in preparing the lists, the authorities opened a new cell to address different anomalies in the lists.
Contacted, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said, "We would extend time for admission if necessary."
Buet's Institute of Information and Communication Technology was assigned the task of preparing the lists.
Shahan Ara Begum, principal of Ideal School and College in the capital's Motijheel, said they could not download the list till 2:00pm which caused a lot of difficulties for them.
"We could only admit students of our institution who received the SMS. But we could not admit those who are from other institutions as we did not get the list on time," she told The Daily Star.
She said they were able to download a list of science students around 4:00pm.
"The admission process might be delayed if this situation continued," feared the principal.
The college, which tops the best-performing colleges every year, can accommodate some 1,380 students in different faculties.
Farhad Hossain, principal of Monipur High School and College, echoed Shahan Ara.
"Many parents and students have gathered here [in the college compound] for admission. But we did not get the list yet. We all are worried," he said.
Waliur Rahman, a parent, said his son came to know about his selection to Monipur College through an SMS, but he could not get admitted as the college authorities were yet to get the complete list.
The picture at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, however, was a little different.
The college principal said they got the list but it did not have the names of some of their own students who passed the SSC from the institution.
"We will admit these students whether their names are on the list or not. They were our students and they have studied for 10 years in this institution. We are communicating with the board regarding this," said Sufia Khatun, principal of the institution.
The college has 2,000 seats for class XI students.
Similar is the situation outside Dhaka.
Shah Md Moksed Ali, principal of Carmichael College in Rangpur, said they could not download the merit list till 3:30pm yesterday and that is why they could not start the admission process.
"We are trying to download the list and if we can, we will start the process tomorrow [Tuesday]," the principal told our Rangpur correspondent at 4:50pm.
Moksed said he had information that Rangpur Govt College and Govt Begum Rokeya College are also facing similar problems as they could download only the merit list of Science students.
Mukaddir, a guardian from Mymensingh, phoned The Daily Star office to complain about the problem his niece is facing.
He said his niece obtained GPA-5 from a rural school and applied for five colleges including two government institutions. "But she was not selected for any of the first three colleges. However, her friends who got GPA-4.5 found a place in one of the government colleges," he said.
Dr Rezaul Karim, principal of Government Shaheed Bulbul College in Pabna, said they have to enrol 1,200 students but only 63 students could take admission yesterday as they were able to download the merit list around 1:30pm.
Barisal Women's College faced similar problems, reports our Barisal Correspondent.
Contacted, Prof Abu Bakar Siddique, chairman of Inter-education Board Coordination Subcommittee, said they also heard of such problems.
"We cannot say why these technical problems have arisen. People from the Buet should respond to this," he told The Daily Star.
The Daily Star, however, could not reach the Buet authorities for comments despite repeated attempts.
The education minister told The Daily Star that no student would be affected due to the newly arisen problems.
Nahid urged the college authorities, who did not get the list, to contact their respective boards. "We have opened a separate section which will address these problems," he said.
Before preparing the admission policy, the education minister had given a written instruction to bring under the online admission system only those colleges that have over 300 seats, ministry sources said. As all colleges were not technically equipped to cope with this digitisation, the minister thought it better not to incorporate all the colleges into the system, they added.
Education Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan, however, allegedly disregarded the minister's written instruction and issued the admission guidelines in his absence, sources added.
The education secretary could not be reached for comments.
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