13 lakh apply for college admission

More than 13 lakh students have applied for admission to the 11th grade at colleges across the country as the deadline for application online and through mobile text expired yesterday.

Although Thursday night was fixed for the last date for submitting applications, the authorities allowed the candidates to apply through SMS till 10:00am yesterday.

Of the total 1301,099 applicants, around 9.37 lakh applied online by logging in to www.xiclassadmission.gov.bd. The rest applied by sending SMS to Teletalk, said officials at the Inter-education Board Coordination Subcommittee.

However, around 1.51 lakh students who passed the Secondary School Certificate examinations this year did not apply.

According to Ashfaqus Salehin, college inspector of the Inter-education Board Coordination Subcommittee, a huge number of students change their track every year after passing the SSC exams.

"Some opt for technical education after passing the SSC exams, while some others drop out, go abroad or get involved in jobs," said an official of Dhaka Education Board asking not to be named.

Around 14.52 lakh students passed this year's SSC examinations.

The government last year initiated online admission to all colleges and decided that the boards would publish a list of students specifying the colleges where they are to be enrolled.

However, the entire system turned out to be a nightmare for more than 11 lakh applicants and their parents apparently due to a lack of preparation on the government's side. The major problem that the students faced was wrong selection of colleges made by the boards.

This time, a student has the chance to apply for to up to 20 institutions of his or her choice. Last year the preference was restricted to five, of which one would be given them as per their merit.

Officials of the subcommittee said they have received 44.92 lakh applications thanks to the option for applying for several colleges.

The merit list of students will be published on June 16 and students will be able to enrol from June 18 to June 30.

Admission on payment with late fees will begin on July 10 and will be closed on July 20, according to admission policy issued by the education ministry.

Classes in the colleges will begin on July 10.