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Higher secondary (plus one) single window nightmare in Kerala

July 10th, 2008

In Malayalam there is a saying - "onnukila asante nenchathu allengil kalarikku purathu" which when translated means "either on teachers chest or outside school".  You get the idea.

The same thing happening in technology adoption Kerala. When it comes to Kerala government departments such as KSRTC, Electricity Board or Water Authority technology adoption is zero. You cannot book tickets through online or pay your electricity bills online.  But at the same time areas where we need to be careful, government introduces online facilities in a reckless manner.  Making results available online is good, but it should be backed up with offline facilities at least during the initial stages.

You don’t send men to Mars overnight. You first explore space, then land at moon couple of times and then think of going to Mars! Otherwise what you will get is a bunch dead bodies floating in space.

For example, take the case of higher secondary single window seat allocation (plus one admission). This is a perfect example of how NOT to roll out a service online. Obviously as any other government department, we can guess that the people who rollout these are not selected on MERIT.

  • You could see long lines outside Internet cafes. What government and education department needs to understand is that there are a lot of citizens without Internet access.
  • The plus one allotment list was supposed to be available only through online. No intimation or no other way to know allotment details! Can’t these "government IT experts" at least take a print out and paste it somewhere?
  • When the results were published, the site immediately went down. I know some guys who stayed at Internet cafes from morning to evening to get allotment details!
  • The entire site is in English. My God! guys this is Kerala and our mother tongue is Malayalam and not English. At least provide an alternate page in Malayalam!
  • Every one is in complete darkness as to the whole admission process. Only one thing is certain. You have only one day left to join the school where you are allotted. That is why parents and students panicked and almost spent the entire day at Internet cafes. What is this? A WAR?

Now here are some interesting items to consider.

  • I seriously doubt how secure these systems are. I heard that after computerization, changing records in many offices is easy since it requires a simple database update for someone who knows computers.
  • Is the allocation software reliable? Is it tested?  Is its algorithm tested?  Only god knows. Considering the capability of our other government departments, I can only pray.

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2 Responses to “Higher secondary (plus one) single window nightmare in Kerala”

  1. raymond Says:
    July 10th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Pattikku Pothiyathenga kittiyathupole!

  2. Aarushi Says:
    August 1st, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    The software is a child of engg councelling software, so far no error in logic is reported, but who can guranatee data manipulation, the people will detect it as the full list is available with schools and if one person out another one will get chance. This may prevent corruption, as seats are not sufficient for accomodating all.

    Yes for non computer people this is a nightmare, and next year they will get used to it. Anyway whole education is a nightmare under MA Baby.

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