Online forms stall admission process

8th and 9th graders may miss deadlines due to BISE website glitches.

SIALKOT: The online admission registration system of the Gujranwala Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) has disintegrated due to technical faults.

School officials have said that the system is putting the educational careers of hundreds of boys and girls at risk.

A group of students complained that the Gujranwala BISE official website has several technical faults. Hundreds of the students from 8th and 9th grade are still unable to download the prescribed admission forms from the website, which has stalled their admission process.

BISE authorities recently announced that admission forms would be made available for 8th and 9th class on the institution’s website and that December 20, 2010 was the last date for depositing the forms. Students have complained that they might lose an entire year if they are unable to meet the deadline because of technical glitches in the website.

Meanwhile, Government High Schools’ Headmasters Association Sialkot district president, Arshad Javaidul Aziz, has expressed grave concern over the situation. “The Gujranwala BISE online admission system should not have been launched before all the technical faults were resolved. The board needs to extend application deadlines considering that the website issues have nothing to do with the students,” he said, adding that the students and teachers would protest if the deadlines were not extended.

The students also pointed that the board had already collected Rs100 per admission form from the students who were now being asked to deposit online admission fees.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2010.