CHENNAI: A section of candidates applying for assistant professor posts in government arts and science colleges has raised concerns over technical issues on the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) portal during the crucial stage of uploading their work-experience certificates.

Though the TRB recently extended the deadline to December 5, several applicants said they were still unable to complete the process despite repeated attempts.

The TRB had invited applications to fill 2,708 permanent assistant professor vacancies announced earlier by Higher Education Minister Govi Chezhiaan.

Over 200 candidates complained that when they tried to upload their experience certificates, the portal either showed an incomplete application status or repeatedly asked them to reset their passwords. Some also said applications they had previously completed appeared blank when they logged in again.

In a representation to the TRB chairperson, M Muthulakshmi said her application, completed on October 28, suddenly showed as “not completed” when she attempted to upload her service certificates. She urged the board to resolve the issue and allow affected candidates to submit their documents.

“The last date to submit the experience certificate is December 5. The TRB can at least allow us one more day to rectify the errors. We don’t know when the next assistant professor recruitment will be held. The board should heed our pleas,” said another aspirant, Kavitha.

TRB officials, however, maintained that the issues were due to candidate errors and not system-related. Despite this, applicants have appealed for at least a day’s extension to avoid being disqualified from the recruitment process.