VIJAYAWADA: Technical glitches marred EAMCET counselling across the state on Monday. Though two helpline centres — one at SRR College and another at Andhra Loyola College — operate in Vijayawada, most officials seemed ill-equipped to guide students.Online certification was delayed, resulting in the counselling process, which was scheduled to start at 9 am, beginning only at 1.15 pm.
Parents TNIE spoke to alleged the poor arrangements gave the students several anxious hours. “Neither the website nor the EAMCET-related SMS service was working properly,” a clearly perturbed parent, not wishing to be named, said. K Sarvani, a student from Kanuru said the website did not work initially. “The payment gateway was not working and documents could not be uploaded. I tried several times, but as an error box kept appearing, I rushed to a help centre. After I got there, I realised the problem was with the website,” she said. T Vamsi Mohan from Vijayawada too had a bad experience. “I didn’t have any information on which document to upload online. Dialling the helpline number was of little use. I received no help initially. It was only after a lot of requests that they finally gave me the list of documents to be uploaded,” he complained.
Several parents and students believe the blame lies solely with officials as they commenced counselling in a hurry without issuing basic guidelines to candidates. “The staffers at the centre too seem clueless about what they should be doing,” a parent said.
Officials with the Education Department said EAMCET counselling should have begun on May 26, but delays on the part of certain colleges to get affiliated to universities slowed down the process. “We suggested that counselling be kickstarted in the first week of June, but Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao insisted that we set the ball rolling by May 28,” an official said.Interestingly, no admission committee has been formed yet and just 11 helpline centres have been set up across the state, with as many as five districts not having any such provision.
The ranks of inter students who had submitted their papers for revaluation was updated in the morning, causing confusion as a few students ended up getting the same rank.
Despite online counselling for EAMCET being a new affair, not a single demonstration session was offered to students. The rifts between the Higher Education Department and AP State Council for Higher Education resulted in poor coordination between the bodies.
Education Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, who is touring the US, spoke to EAMCET convener G Panda Das and enquired about the counselling process. Rao is understood to have instructed officials to increase the number of helpline centres to 13, ensure that the process be completed without any confusion and allotment cards be issued by June 5. Centres will be set up in Vizianagaram, Kadapa, Srikakulam, Ongole and other districts too.
EAMCET convenor GS Panda Das told TNIE the technical errors were not anticipated as it was for the first time that EAMCET counselling was being done online. “We have given helpline numbers and rectified issues with the website.”