"The admission process will resume at 10 am on Thursday after verifying that adequate measures have been taken to ensure smooth process," says Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde
After three days of mess in the admission portal of the First Year Junior College (FYJC), the Maharashtra government stalled the online admission process for a day on Wednesday in Mumbai region. The breather aims to help the outsourcing firm to address all issues in next 24 hours.
"The admission process will resume at 10 am on Thursday after verifying that adequate measures have been taken to ensure smooth process," says Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde in a hurriedly called press conference on Tuesday.
Noida-based IT firm NYSA, hired for the first time replacing the old guard MKCL, is under criticism since the admission process started on June 16. Scores of students from across Mumbai region, which includes Thane, Raigad and Palghar districts, complained that they failed to submit their forms despite several efforts as the website ran slow, hanged repeatedly and crashed.
Tawde defended the firm. "Not the firm, servers and bandwidth are unable to handle such a huge traffic. The firm had been told to address both by Wednesday evening. We would ensure not a single student is affected."
Education department officials insisted the firm was hired following the tender process.
Company officials could not be reached for comments. Its website says, "The company has successfully provided educational solution to more than 500 clients around globe and services to more than 2 million customers annually." The company also claims to have won several awards.
Over 2.5 lakh students in the region are waiting for admission in class 11 this year.
BB Chavan, Deputy Director of School Education (Mumbai region) claimed, "Almost 75% students have already filled the part one of their forms. Over a lakh students have also filled the second part. The website would be functional again from Thursday morning."
Aspirants and parents are worried the website shutdown for a day would lead to chaos. "Over the last few days, the website has been down on several occasions which has created a lot of pressure on students. The website being shut for a day would affect students even further," said Neena Abhyankar a parent from the city.
TIMETABLE of Admission: Online form filling: June 16-27
General merit list: June 30
First merit list: July 7
Second merit list: July 17
Third merit list: July 25
Fourth Merit list: August 1
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