Admission in higher secondary level is in shambles

Masum Billah :
The government for the first time this year initiated online admission to all colleges of the country. It also decided that the boards would publish a list of the students, specifying the colleges where they are to be enrolled. But at the very initial stage the whole process witnessed many bizarre things leaving the students as well as their guardians at the end of their tether. Classes began at colleges across the country from 01 July 2015 amid this situation with many students suffering from such problems and most of the institutions not being able to complete the admission process yet. The 1.1 million HSC passed students waiting with great anxiety to see the outcome of their applications have only been informed of revised timings for publication of the lists of successful applicants. The educational authority was struggling to place the ‘first merit list’ on the website at dead of night on 29 June after shifting the dates several times. Every student had to apply online or through SMS this year. They were given the option to choose from five colleges. The Inter-Board Coordination Subcommittee prepared the lists based on the results of the Secondary School Certificate examinations.
A series of bizarre things got into this process though it was done with an honest objective, to say the truth. Education board officials said they received a number of complaints regarding ‘fake applications’. Many students accompanied by their parents gathered before the Dhaka Education Board office and lodged complaints to the board officials .Many of them said they were not sure if they wanted to get admitted into the college as selected by the board. Some even claimed they were selected for institutions that they did not put in their choices. The board officials said they are trying to solve the problems as soon as possible. Thousands of students desperate to enroll at colleges find themselves in a fix after discovering their application forms had already been submitted online or by SMS.But due to a lack of preparation on the government’s part, the entire system turned out to be nightmare for more than 11 lakh students and their parents. Finally, the ministry on 29 November at dead of night published the first merit list with names of over 10.93 lakh students for admission into class XI at different colleges. In the first list, the ministry failed to incorporate over 62,000 students for any college. The officials said that another merit list would be published on July 6, but they could not assure whether the names dropped out of the first list would be in that list. With every passing day, new complexities are surfacing prolonging students’ sufferings further. 200 students of commerce group have been selected by the board for Government Science College in Tejgaon, a college which is well-known for science education. Confusion prevailed among them about getting admission to the colleges of their choice even after being allowed to apply again following complaints lodged with the education boards.
Many of the colleges have allegedly submitted applications of students without informing them in order to put their institutes on the top of the lists. Over 100 colleges of Dhaka Board have been served show-cause notices, though those behind the wrongdoing could not be identified.
Jessore board college inspector Amal Kumar Biswas said they had received 1,000 such complaints. He said, sixteen colleges were asked to explain their position. BUET has made some changes to the list after they sent the complaints to its IICT. Students who are victims of this fraud may have problems getting admission to the college of their choice, if the seats were filled.
A Dhaka board student said someone had filed a ‘fake application’ using his roll number, thus blocking his chance of getting into Ideal College. “The fake application stated the Adamjee Cantonment College to be my first choice and left out Ideal College from my list”, he said.
He also said he had learnt that a ‘close friend’ of his had done the mischief to keep him out. “Ideal College was his first choice”. The student said he had complained to the board and had been promised a chance to apply again. What will be the point of applying again if the seats in Ideal College are already filled up was his question. Barisal board inspector Liakat Hossain said 189 students had complained about someone having applied in their names. He said the applications of these students had been rectified.
Five colleges under the board were served show-cause notices over the matter. According to him, the online admission system has come under intense criticism since it leaves ample scope for one to apply using others’ names. “The entire system is being debated . Under the Sylhet board, the number of such students is over 100, according to Section Officer Abul Kalam. The authorities asked the victims to file complaints after the allegations surfaced. Dinajpur board inspector Faraj Uddin Talukder said results of over 300 victims of ‘fake applications’ were changed. A student filed a general complaint with the police, too.
Victim students expressed their dissatisfaction over many problems like, not be able to get admitted to the college of choice despite having all the qualifications, name in the outside of five colleges of choice and absence of the name in the college of choice despite having GPA-5.
Ovi Islam has GPA-5 in all the subjects. Rajshahi College, New Government Degree College, and Rajshahi Government City College are in his choice list. But, his name was published in the third number of his choice under Rajshahi City College.Ahad Ali said, he obtained GPA-5. But, his name does not appear on the list of any colleges in five college choice list. He said, he has been waiting for the second merit list. He said, the name of many of the students seeking admission did not name in the first merit list.On the other hand, admission seeking student Shoumo said, his name did not appear on the list of any colleges that he selected. But, his name appears on the list of a different college. He asks why his name did not come up in his college of choice. He will not be admitted in any college out of his choice.
The apprehensions arise from the fact that the software that the BUET team used may not have been ‘appropriate’ for maintaining a huge amount of data. Besides the magnitude of the task, the variety of students’ choices made the process complicated demanding well-tested software. It appears that the challenging aspects of the undertaking were not properly thought through. In fact, the software was adopted without even a trial run, which, if it is true, reflects the height of professional irresponsibility. Where it should have been problem-solving, it is being problem-generating. But going online means efficient, fail-safe and speedy delivery of services. It also helps curb corruption and malpractice. We can remember what happened last year regarding admission into colleges. The student leaders particularly ‘ Chhatra League’ cadres and leaders collected a huge amount of money from the admission seekers. To avoid this irregularities the ministry probably thought of this process in spite of having several limitations. If it is done next year, it would be better to decentralize the system such as division-wise or board -wise to lessen the burden and enable the software to bear the moderate amount of load. This year the honest intention of the ministry of education did not find success due to server problem, lack of well coordination between board and BUET authorities and the trial of hacking by the organization which was supposed to get the work done. Still we hope for the best as this years’ experience will guide us to the right direction.

(Masum Billah is Program Manager: BRAC Education Program, Email: masumbillah65@gmail.com )