Tech glitch hits board’s maiden online attempt.
Four days are left for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) practicals. But students are still to get their hall tickets.
The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has failed to generate the most crucial document for the 14 lakh students scheduled to take the exams this year. So, chances are high that the practical exams, slated for February 6, will once again be postponed.
About three weeks ago, the board postponed the exams, originally slated for February 3, by three days fearing hall tickets would not be generated on time. Now, state board officials are in a tight spot with thousands of students from across the state enquiring about the hall tickets with their colleges every day.
Under tremendous pressure, officials at the board headquarters in Pune are working round the clock to finish the job manually.
The board, known for its punctuality and commitment for decades, decided to go online for the first time in the 2013-14 academic session. And it asked HSC students to submit exam forms online.
The online process was riddled with glitches right from the beginning. When the online form submission flopped, the board asked students to submit ‘hard copies’ to avoid any major embarrassment.
“We thought the online system would help us go high-tech,” a board official said. “But it hasn’t helped matters. We have no idea if we can complete the work before February 5.”
While colleges claimed the board hired an outsourcing agency, Gangadhar Mhamane, chairman of the MSBSHSE, denied it. He insisted the board was looking after the online submission.
Colleges are still to receive even the “pre-exam list”. “The list contains all information about students. It usually reaches us a month before the practical exams,” a principal said. “The corrected list is sent back, based on which the hall tickets are prepared. Every year we receive the tickets almost a week before the exams.”
Lakshmikant Pande, chairman of the Mumbai divisional board, said: “Teething problems are bound to occur when we implement a new system.” He said colleges would receive hall tickets within two days.
Moreover colleges should ask students to collect hall tickets on the day of the practical exams, Pande said.
Incidentally, the board conducted a pilot run of the online process during the October 2013 exams for repeaters. No glitch was reported then.
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