HYDERABAD: With just two more days to go for the closing of registrations for the Degree Online Service Telangana (DOST), only 44,000 students have registered for the 3.78 lakh seats that are up for grabs. The laggard registration process is being attributed to the delay in procuring income and caste certificates coupled with the soaring mercury levels in the State. The registration process for DOST had commenced on May 26.
The Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) had introduced a slew of measures to make the admission procedure more student-friendly from this academic year. One of them being, students seeking scholarships would have to register and simultaneously upload their income certificates to get fee reimbursement. However, the diktat has left them scurrying from one department to another, trying to procure their certificates.
“The registration process is yet to pick up pace mostly because of the heatwaves and difficulties in procuring income certificate. Unlike previous years, when students could register with DOST and submit their certificates anytime during the year, the convenor has been particular this time about submitting them simultaneously,” said Laxma Reddy, chairman, Association for Strengthening of Private Initiative in Rural Education.
While most of the students had applied for their certificates in April and May, their applications are still pending with the respective mandal revenue offices on account of back-to-back elections in the State coupled with staff crunch. In Hyderabad district alone, as many as 6500 applications pertaining to income, caste and residential certificates are left piled up.
Further, technical issues like poor internet connectivity on mobile phones, mismatch of Aadhaar details, among others, have been hampering the registration process. “We had received several complaints from students who were unable to register themselves for DOST. We then put them in touch with the helpline centres.
The problem has finally been rectified,” said Govardhan, principal of Siddhartha Degree College for Women, Dilsukhnagar.