Students complain against OCAS ‘disparity’

LAHORE:The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) takes pride in its Online College Admissions System (OCAS), which has efficiently managed admissions to intermediate programmes in over 800 government colleges for more than a decade.

Nonetheless, since its launch, the OCAS has overlooked the needs of the hundreds of thousands of students seeking admission to intermediate programmes at nearly as many government higher secondary schools.

Interestingly, neither the PITB nor the School Education Department (SED) Punjab has attempted to implement this system for higher secondary schools under SED Punjab's administration, unlike the colleges managed by the Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab.

“I wanted to apply for FSc (pre-medical), which is offered at both the Govt Graduate College for Women, Islampura, and the Govt Girls Higher Secondary School, Sant Nagar. However, since the OCAS only supports admissions for the college, I’m unable to apply online for the higher secondary school, even though both institutions offer the same intermediate programme,” said Ayesha, expressing her frustration with the online system. According to her, for students the key issue is ease of access, regardless of whether the institution is a college or a school, as long as the programme of study is the same.

A schoolteacher, who wished to remain anonymous, pointed out that the PITB has been digitising school data for quite long now unlike the colleges, a clear example of this is the online teacher transfer system. This system was implemented for colleges in recent years but has been in use for schools for over a decade now.

The teacher went on to say that since each school had a unique EMIS code, integrating schools into the OCAS would be straightforward for the PITB. “The challenge, however, is the willingness to take this step,” the teacher added.

It is worth noting that the lack of coordination among the PITB, HED Punjab, and SED Punjab has led to a fragmented admissions process, leaving students and their families in a difficult situation.

Another student, Shafaq, stated that an updated version of OCAS was needed, one that encompassed both colleges and higher secondary schools within a single, user-friendly interface. She noted that since most of the higher secondary schools were for girls, such an interface would be especially beneficial for female students. Punjab SED secretary was not available for comments. The News reached out to Punjab School Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat, who assured that he would speak to the reporter. However, despite multiple follow-ups, the minister did not respond. However, an official told this correspondent on the condition of anonymity that the department will look into the issue to address the anomaly.