Parents wait hours for exam results
A number of parents yesterday alleged that they faced a lot of trouble in getting the results of two major public examinations, both online and via text.
They said they could not log on to the website for several hours after the results of primary terminal examination and Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examinations were out yesterday noon. They did not get the results even after sending several texts to carrier Teletalk, they added.
A top official of the state-run carrier said Teletalk's preparations were insufficient. The mobile operator was solely responsible for distributing the results via SMS and it also uploaded the results on its website along with some other government sites.
Aggrieved parent Al-Amin termed the situation ridiculous. “I have been trying for five hours to get the results of my daughter online. But every time I clicked the 'boards results', it said 'not found' along with some jargons.”
Al-Amin said he thought that the education board was testing the nerves of millions by using a system that does not work.
“One of my relatives told me that she had spent Tk 40 online [in data charges and for texts] but failed to get the results,” said Al-Amin. He and his family members had spent around Tk 80 for the same.
Another parent Shamim Ahmed said he sent four texts at four different times between 12:30pm and the next two hours but failed to get any response from Teletalk (until 8:20pm).
“My child attended the examination last month and we the guardians also faced another examination today,” said Shamim.
Teletalk's preparation was insufficient for handling the traffic, said Kazi Md Golam Quddus, managing director of Teletalk.
He said they had taken additional preparations, compared to previous years', but website's visitors were unexpectedly high and they got millions of texts in the few hours of the result being published.
“This load created congestion in our network and servers,” said Quddus.
Service was hampered for around two hours due to the congestion, said Quddus.
However, parents said they had to wait four to five hours for the results.
More than 51.78 lakh students appeared for the Primary School Certificate examination, Junior Secondary Certificate, and Junior Dakhil Certificate examinations this year and their results were published yesterday noon.
There were three to four texts sent for the result of every student and all of a sudden most of them were trying to visit the Teletalk site, said Quddus.
“Increasing the capacity requires money and we face this type of situation only for a few hours a year.”
Quddus said the national data transmission network was also not well prepared to handle this type of rush and it needed upgrade.
Other carriers also deliver exam results via text but they serve their customers taking the results from Teletalk.
“The government does not like to engage other mobile carriers in this process as there are security concerns,” said a top official of Teletalk.
Quddus said they were trying to increase their capacity and server strength.5454654564565645456456
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