Notice to GSEB chairman

GANDHINAGAR, May 6: Obviously enraged by yesterday's Internet fiasco, Minister of State for Education Anandiben Patel on Thursday issued ...

GANDHINAGAR, May 6: Obviously enraged by yesterday8217;s Internet fiasco, Minister of State for Education Anandiben Patel on Thursday issued a notice to Gujarat Secondary Education Board GSEB chairman G D Vyas asking him to explain the reasons for the website crashing within minutes of the HSC Science stream Board results being posted on the Internet.

Confirming this, the minister told Express Newsline this evening, quot;I have served a notice to the Board chairman, seeking his explanation and also sounding a note of warning so as to prevent the recurrence of such a big blunderquot;.

An irate Anandiben said, quot;It really pains me that the novel experiment to declare the HSC results through the Internet should have gone haywire in this way. This has not only tarnished our department8217;s image, but has also overshadowed our attempts to declare the HSC Board results as early as May 5 this yearquot;.

However, the GSEB did try to make amends today by announcing its plans to introduce a new system to ensure that students received timely results of the HSC general stream and SSC examinations.

The minister also directed the GSEB to put the HSC general stream and SSC results on the Internet only when the detailed printed results are made available at schools so as to avoid a repeat of Wednesday8217;s debacle.

In reply to a question, Anandiben said, quot;I had certainly cautioned the GSEB officials to anticipate trouble before declaring the HSC results through the Internet and have a proper trial-run of this novel experiment. But, unfortunately the officials did not pay any heedquot;.

The once-bitten government has now decided to introduce a new quot;mirror serverquot; system comprising three high-capacity servers when it declares the HSC general stream and SSC Board results on Internet in the third week of May and the first week of June respectively.

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When contacted, GSEB chairman G D Vyas said the crashing of the website had been caused by the unexpected heavy traffic of people who in their eagerness had attempted to find out the results simultaneously on Internet. quot;Nearly two lakh hits were reported on Internet at a time yesterday, as against the 20,000 to 40,000 hits we expected,8221; he explained.

Vyas said the detailed results started appearing on screen around 11 pm on Wednesday after the technicians were directed to introduce a new US-based SQL software programme to be incorporated in a server which ensured the entry of thousands of visitors at a time.

The Board chairman said the new quot;mirror serverquot; would now be incorporated into the SQL software programme while declaring the remaining HSC and SSC Board results later this month and early June. Each of the three servers under the amended dispensation will cover at least 50,000 hits at one go, which will enable about 1.40 lakh HSC general stream students and nearly five lakh SSC students to find out the results, he said.