Online exam collapse: IGNOU seeks report from Yahoo

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Following the collapse of its online entrance exam for engineering programmes on Saturday, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today sought explanation from the service provider Yahoo!, as to what went wrong leading to the crash.

Following the crash IGNOU, which offers distance education to over 18 lakh students, had failed to conduct the online entrance examination.

"Today we have asked the Yahoo! to submit a report explaining what went wrong leading to the collapse of the online entrance exam. We have asked for the log which will be examined to find out how the on-line testing crashed," a PTI report quoted the examination coordinator professor Shiv Kumar Vyas as saying.

About 9,350 students were supposed to appear in the test for admission into the diploma and degree programmes in engineering under IGNOU.

Following crash, IGNOU had said on Tuesday that it would conduct an entrance test for engineering courses again in next 10 days.

"The IGNEAT will be conducted within 10 days. We are still trying to ascertain the cause of server failure. We have roped in the cyber security cell (Delhi Police) to investigate the matter and have asked our technicians for a report which we would get in a week," IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V. Rajashekharan Pillai told IANS.

IGNOU was using the Yahoo server for conducting the test.

Pillai, however, ruled out the possibility of a major security breach. "I don't think it is hacking, it was a server failure - and could have been due to load and congestion. We have thought of using our own server."

(With inputs from IANS)