The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Slow start to allotment process

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Slow start to allotment process

Staff Reporter

Photo: S. Gopakumar (See also Page 4)

Registering options: Engineering/medical course candidates at the Option Facilitation Centre in Barton Hill Engineering College on Thursday. –

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a lukewarm start at the Option Facilitation Centres (OFCs) in the city for the first phase of the Centralised Allotment Process (CAP) for professional courses that began on Saturday morning.

There are four OFCs in the city – the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram; the Sree Chithra Tirunal Engineering College, Pappanamcode; the LBS Institute for Women, Poojappura, and the Government Engineering College, Barton Hill.

The personnel manning the OFCs had to deal with a barrage of doubts and queries raised by candidates and their parents.

Many candidates were under the impression that the data sheet containing the key number to be used use for logging on to the web site designated for submitting options would be available at the OFCs. Such students were later directed to the Office of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations.

Many anxious parents repeatedly asked the staff at some OFCs whether the non-receipt of the data sheet on time would affect their wards’ participation in the CAP.

Several students wanted to know whether they had to give separate priority lists for engineering and medical courses. Such persons were told that the options list is to be provided in an integrated manner.

G. S. Deepu, a computer laboratory instructor at the LBS Institute, said there were many who submitted separate 1,2.3… priority entries for engineering and medicine and later, had to correct it on the instructions of the staff. Others wanted to know whether it was enough to submit options once or whether they had to come each day for this purpose.

Those at the OFC replied that while it was not compulsory to come and submit options daily, the options list could be revised any number of times. Yet others were not sure how many options they should submit for engineering/medical courses.

“There were instances when only the parents came. We told such people that it is always better if the student comes in person; they would be in a much better position to mark the options. Then there were those who told us upfront that they did not know anything about computers and that they needed us to do everything for them,” Mr. Deepu said.

Mistakes in entering the key number led to many candidates being unable to log on to their homepages.

In many instances candidates entered the alphabet ‘O’ in place of the numeral ‘0’ in the key number.

Counselling facility

At the Barton Hill OFC too similar doubts were raised by parents and candidates.

“Today being the first day we just opened up the computer lab and stood by to provide assistance. On Monday we will open a counselling facility where students and parents can clear all their doubts before actually sitting down in front of the computer to register options. That way they can submit options much faster,” the professor and head of the IT department at the college S. Krishnan Kutty told The Hindu.

By 7.45 p.m. on Saturday, 10,393 students had submitted as many as 4,62,053 course-college options at the designated website.

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