Cold response to online admissions

At the end of Saturday, the fourth day since the education department opened the online admission site, 26,295 students from different boards had submitted their forms, less than a fifth of the 1.4 lakh that had done so at the same stage last year.

At the end of Saturday, the fourth day since the education department opened the online admission site, 26,295 students from different boards had submitted their forms, less than a fifth of the 1.4 lakh that had done so at the same stage last year.

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In 2010, 55,326 students submitted their forms on day one, and by day four, the figure touched 1,41,935.

A combination of factors is responsible for the slow pace this year.

The site for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) students was opened a day and a half later than for other students. The schedule is spread out over 16 days instead of 10 as last year.

"Students are more relaxed, they must be going through the online booklet at leisure," said an education department official. "We opened the site earlier than we had planned, so not everyone would be prepared to submit their forms yet."

SSC students outside the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) have been unable to submit their forms so far as they would get their final mark sheets from schools on Monday. Department officials said they had not asked the board for data of students outside MMR.

"We didn't know about this, the second part of the form will be opened only after we get out marksheets," said Noman Waghu, whose brother studied in a school in Ratnagiri.

In a few guidance centres, students also reported glitches.

"It keeps leading to a technical error, and my classmates are facing the same thing too," said a student of Anjuman-I-Islam school near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.