BHOPAL: About 5.5 lakh students from Madhya Pradesh used more than 6 crore A4-size paper sheets to secure admission in 1405 colleges across the state, this session, through ‘Online Process’ held by Department of Higher Education (DHE).
According to figures provided by the department more than 5.50 lakh students took admission in colleges across the state. Each student used 10-15 paper sheets to submit photocopies of their documents. The documents to be deposited in colleges include mark sheet of class 10 and 12 besides photocopies of certificates that of transfer, migration, income, caste, Aadhaar card copy etc. Same numbers of copies are to be submitted again if a student applies for scholarship.
“On an average a student submits about 10-15 set of copies to complete the Online admission process. This is happening when the Higher Education Department keeps claiming that the admission process is Online,” said whistleblower and education activist DP Singh. Moreover, all these documents are already uploaded on the portal of higher education and MPonlie, he added. All colleges have access to these documents but they ask for a hardcopy of all documents during verification process.
This not only causes damage to environment but also burn a hole in student’s pocket. One sheet of paper costs Rs 2 and every student has to spend Rs 30-40 to secure admission in a college.
Calculating in terms of weight approximately 66 tons of paper was used during Online admission process. A standard A4 sheet is made from 80 gsm paper weighs 5g (as it is 1?16 of an A0 page, measuring 1m²). Students across the state used more than 6,600000 (6.6 ton) with one student using average 12 copies. According to trading experts estimated 200 sheets weigh 1 kg bringing weight of overall copies deposited to 6.6 ton. According to calculation made by environmentalist it takes about 1,584 trees to extract 66 tons of paper.
Every student should have a digi-locker: Rajan
If documents of students are already uploaded then there should be no requirement of hardcopies, said Principal Secretary, Higher education department, Anupam Rajan. “If this is happening then it will be changed as students should have a digi-locker account-promoted by government- where all documents remain available,” said Rajan.
24 trees make 1 ton standard office paper
66,000 kg (66 tons) of paper deposited by students in colleges across the state
Papers extracted from 1,584 trees used by students during admissions this year
