With colleges opting for online admissions this year, students from rural areas, who have poor access to high speed internet connectivity, have to travel to the nearest browsing centres to apply to colleges.
Though browsing centres are present across rural areas, some students still have to travel to the city to reach browsing centres.
K. Santhosh, a student who passed out of Government Higher Secondary School in Mukkulam village of Sivaganga district, had to travel to Vandiyur in Madurai city on Tuesday for a browsing centre.
“In the absence of public transport, I travelled on a two-wheeler to reach the city. I chose to travel to Madurai city because I thought those working at the browsing centres here are well informed and would fill up my college applications correctly,” he said.
T. Alaguraja, who runs a browsing centre at Usilampatti town, said that around 50 students visited his centre in the past two days to apply for college admissions. “While applying for many colleges, students have to scan their documents and upload their photographs. Hence, they come to computer centres,” he said.
Most of the rural students are unaware of how to pay online or they lack internet banking facilities, he added. “So, the students pay the owners of browsing centres the college application fee, apart from additional service charges. The owners then pay for the online application through their accounts,” he said.
The browsing centres charge around ₹ 100 as service charges for every online application that is filed, he added.
M.Sainithii, a resident of Sholavandhan, said that it would be nice if the government opens e-seva centres in rural pockets exclusively for online college admissions. “For many students paying additional charge for every online application is unaffordable,” he said.