Officials shouldn’t give up on efforts to track foreign college students in the United States.

A new computerized system designed to track the nearly 1 million foreign college students in the United States has encountered many technical problems. Some schools have abandoned it, at least temporarily.

But let’s hope the people in charge of this project don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. In the light of our current challenges, this or a similar system needs to be refined and perfected rather than discarded. It is something we likely are going to need for a long time.

Representatives of colleges, universities and foreign language schools required to use the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) say the program has been overwhelmed and is unpredictable. The goal of SEVIS is to secure the nation against terrorists posing as foreign students. Such links have been confirmed previously; doubtless, a number still exist and need to be dealt with.

Critics say it has taken hours in some cases to enter a single record. They add that the system accepts data and later deletes it. In another instance, a Harvard foreign student’s record suddenly appeared on a computer at Cornell University. George Mason University tried to retrieve its data but pulled up the private record of a Princeton student. At one point, records crisscrossed the country so often that government troubleshooters gave the problem a name — “bleeding.”

Georgetown University was worried that student records were not being saved, so Georgetown and the University of Maryland stopped entering data for several days. Southeastern University president Charlene Drew Davis says she’s certain that an error in the system resulted in one student’s arrest on suspicion of unfriendly activity.

Whether hackers, criminals or just plain bunglers are causing all this, the problem needs to be corrected as soon as possible. And the system should be set up so it can be retained and refined.

Congress mandated the $37 million system after authorities found that three of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were in the government’s student database. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement relies on the system for updated information on all foreign nationals who apply for and get student visas. They use it to determine when students are out of status and to detect fraud.

Understandably, academic officials worry that the computer glitches may cause serious trouble for the international student program. Little wonder. The prospects for difficulties are unlimited.

Yet the goal of the system has merit, and it should not be shut down by early glitches. Although there will be cries for discontinuation, until it is proven that the system is beyond repair, that should not occur.