Admissions via online portal not feasible: Colleges

Want offline option for better enrolment

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 20

Even as the state government has taken a decision to hold online admissions for all colleges falling under Panjab University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University through the Saanjh Online Admission Portal in view of the Covid situation this time, the college authorities have termed it “irrational and inappropriate”.

While majority of students and parents are satisfied with the decision as they do not want to travel in the pandemic time and want the entire process to get completed sitting at home, the college managements and principals are of the view that it would be an unsuccessful plan with already low admissions last year.

President of Principals’ Association and Principal of Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, Dr Gurpinder Samra said, “We have already seen that the common online admission counselling for BEd and BTech has been almost a failure. Most students prefer to take admission directly by approaching the colleges of their choice. People in Punjab, especially in rural areas, are not yet fully prepared for the online system of admission. Many of them are not used to making digital payments. Students in general have a very casual approach towards admission and do not check the facts well. In such a scenario, the colleges which have an attractive portal instead of a more qualified staff will have an edge.”

He said, “I will suggest the government to keep both online and offline options open. The students who want to visit the colleges, see the infrastructure, check out the prospectus, take manual counselling, explore more and take the help of our dedicated staff at the already established counselling centres should be allowed the offline option as well.”

While the Centre is yet to decide about conduct of board examination for Class XII, most colleges, it is learnt, have already started provisional admissions. The college authorities said, “We cannot refuse anyone approaching us directly, so we are doing provisional admissions as well. Already most students in Punjab are looking to go abroad for higher studies. We need to keep them engaged with us.”

Dr Kawaljit Kaur, Principal, Mata Gujri Khalsa College, Kartarpur, also condemned the state government’s decision of common online counselling. “Educational institutions are already battling with a fall in students’ strength. Majority of the institutes have failed to pay salaries to their staff. The strength of students has been dwindling each year due to migration. The government’s plan to centralise the admissions for various courses in all its colleges is a bad decision.”