11 lakh students living on nerves

More than 11 lakh students are in uncertainty over getting into colleges as the authorities repeatedly failed to publish the first merit list for admission to class XI due to a technical glitch.

The education ministry this year introduced an online admission system for 2015-16 academic session, with the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, and Buet coordinating the process.

Around 11.56 lakh students applied for admission and the board was supposed to publish the first merit list on its website (www.xiclassadmission.gov.bd) at 11:00pm Thursday.

But the list could not be published that night.

Instead, the board came up with a statement next morning that the list would be released at 11:30pm Friday.

Later, the board set a third schedule -- 8:00am yesterday -- but missed that too.

Board Chairman Prof Abu Bakar Siddique hoped that they would be able to publish the list by today.

“We are trying our best to make the list public by tomorrow [today],” he told The Daily Star yesterday.

A message on the website said the process of publishing the list was underway and a new schedule for announcing the list would be declared soon.

Tired of browsing the website frequently for three days, admission seekers said they were fed up.

“I don't know what is actually going on. I've been facing troubles since the beginning of the admission process and it's still uncertain whether I would be able to get enrolled in my desired college,” said Rokhsana Amin, who prefers Viqarunnisa Noon School and College to other colleges.

The parents and guardians became more concerned and enraged.

“Why did the government go for this system if it didn't know how to manage the process? It just left the fate of millions of students uncertain,” said Halimur Bashar, father of an admission seeker.

Prof Abu Bakar Siddique said a team of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) was working to resolve the technical glitch with the website.

The website was allegedly hacked several times when the authorities wanted to upload the list. The board officials, however, claimed that there was no incident of hacking.

Sources said the software that the Buet team used was not appropriate for maintaining a huge amount of data.

They also said the number of applicants was large and the variety of students' choices of colleges had made the situation even more complicated.

The admission process allows a student to choose from five colleges, of which one will be given to him or her on the basis of merit.

Speaking anonymously, a Dhaka education board official said there should have been a trial run of the software before starting of the admission process.

Admitting the technical glitch, Education Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan yesterday told reporters that they were working round the clock and expressed hope that the list would be published soon.

Earlier, a statement of Dhaka board had said the students on the first merit list would be able to get admitted to colleges on June 27-30 without paying a late fee.

A second merit list would be published on July 2 based on the seats available in colleges.

Due to the unexpected delay, the government is now considering extending the dates.

As per the academic calendar, classes in colleges are to start on July 1.