Amid Covid crisis, e-filing system comes to students’ aid in Punjab

Reacting to the situation arising due to reduced manpower in offices amid the Covid-19 crisis, the Punjab School Education Board and Education Department have attempted a major innovation by cutting on the number of dealing hands involved in the administrative process of selected activities.

Following the introduction of the e-filing process recently, there has been a significant reduction in the time taken for completion of works. For example, it took not less than 30 working days for students to get the ‘second copy of certificate’. Under the revised guidelines, students are being issued these within three days. Process simplification has been introduced in 10 facilities of the PSEB and 15 of the Education Department.

Earlier, the process for issuing the ‘second copy of certificate’ involved 37 steps. A candidate had to first download the form, get it attested from the school principal, submit the form and fee at the district sub-office, get the documents checked from the dealing manager, scan the fee receipt and the form before it went to the superintendent. The superintendent sent the form to the assistant secretary who forwarded it to the deputy secretary concerned. The papers came down to the student the same way they had gone up.

Now, the candidate fills his form and fee online and sends it to the dealing manager, who completes the process. The candidate gets an ‘ok’ message to know that the process has been completed. In case of any discrepancy in papers, he gets the message seeking a correction. Similarly, the process for sanction of leave (49 steps), confirmation of probation (39 steps) and compassionate appointments (61 steps) has been reduced to just four steps. Providing ‘no objection certificate’, which earlier involved 42 steps, now takes just four.