Over 1,300 barred from B.Ed Entrance Test at 11th hour
Applications of candidates from district and adjoining areas
declared invalid by IGNOU on Saturday, just a day before examination.
For over 1,300 students from the city and its adjoining areas, there could not have
been a worse day than Sunday.
The students who had applied for the Bachelor in Education (B.Ed) degree course
through distance learning at the Pune sub centre of Indira Gandhi National Open
University (IGNOU) were in for a rude shock when they were informed on Saturday
that their applications for admissions were invalid.
What’s worse, this left them with hardly any time to make amends, as the entrance
exam for the course was scheduled for Sunday, barely 24 hours later.
Solution demanded
Worried students crowded the IGNOU regional centre at Senapati Bapat Road, demanding
a solution. There were about 1,447 such students from the district and neighbouring
Satara, Solapur, Kolhapur, Nandurbar, Phaltan, Beed, Sangli.
About 100 of them were later issued hall tickets. Over 1,300 students who could
not make it to the regional centre in time were left out.
According to the students, IGNOU had posted an advertisement inviting applications
for the course on July 1. The last date for application was July 15.
“I filled out my application form and got it checked by the local representative
of IGNOU in our district’s sub centre. He confirmed it was fine and along with a
fee of Rs 500 for the form and attached prospectus, I even sent a demand draft of
Rs 550 as course fees. We received no communication, so we came here to check and
saw our names were blacklisted,” said a student from Satara.
Another student said that she had come all the way from Kolhapur to drop her application
form, but there was no one to receive it and just a drop box for application forms.
“Even if there were mistakes in filling up the form, they should have informed us
and got it rectified,” she said. A total of 15 mistakes or reasons have been pointed
out against the list of names whose applications were considered invalid for admissions
such as wrong centre code, double pin code, among others.
On Saturday, about 100 students of the group crowded the regional centre and demanded
to meet the authorities, but they were refused an audience as Saturday and Sunday
were holidays. The adamant students refused to budge and finally Dr Kameshwari Moorty,
centre in- charge arrived late in the afternoon to speak to the students.
Errors in filling form
“There were errors made by students while filling forms. But we are trying to co-operate
so they don’t lose an opportunity,” she said. By evening, letters were issued to
the students present at centre allowing them to write exams.
She did not comment on the fate of the 1,300 other students whose names were on
the list but couldn’t make it to the regional centre in city.
I filled my application form and got it checked by the local representative
of IGNOU in our district’s sub centre. I even sent a demand draft of Rs 550 as course
fees. We received no communication, so we came here to check and saw our names were
blacklisted.
Courtesy: Mid Day
