Yes, structural changes are required in the Examination system of
ICAI to save the reputation of this profession as I believe that if
students in a country are not happy, then we cannot have bright future
of the country.
All those who belong to CA Fraternity are aware of the fact that
there are some issues with the examination system of ICAI. It all
started when the Institute released two lists of pass students for
CA
Finals in Nov 2017 exams. Students were in fix whether they cleared or
did not clear the CA Examination. Students raised the issue before ICAI
but didn't receive any satisfactory response from their side.
However, after May 2018 CA Final and IPCC results, a lot of students
again raised the issue of discrepancies in their marks and errors in the
answer sheets checked. Now, a few days back we saw a countrywide
protest by students and all the Frontline faculties of India demanding
amendment of regulation 39(4) which don't allow rechecking in case any
discrepancy is found in the checked answer sheet as we have seen that
even MCQs were not checked correctly.
I will straight away jump to the reforms that I expect ICAI to bring
based on my experience and errors seen in the checked answer sheets
1) Entrance should be made toughest:- What kind of
Examination system we have that doesn't assure you a good career/Degree
even after spending 5-6 years in it?? We all know entry to CA Profession
is easiest and result of CA-CPT comes somewhere around 30-40%. Why
can't we reduce it to below 10% so that student's who don't deserve to
be Chartered Accountant are eliminated initially and they don't waste
precious years of their life doing this course and end up getting
nothing.
Now private coaching huts will not support my views and reason is
obvious -their 'Bread and Butter' and this may also reduce article
assistant in market. But what's the use of pumping so many article
assistants in market when there are not enough good firms. Why Can't we
have entrance exam papers like CFA, UPSC, CAT etc.?
2) Duration of the Articleship: In my opinion,
article ship period should be reduced to 2 years and industrial training
should be made compulsory for students for 9 month to 1 Year as
ultimately student has to work in Industry or even if wishes to set up
his/her practice unit, the experience gained in Industry shall be
fruitful. Most of the Companies coming in campus placement of ICAI do
not hire students due to lack of Industry experience and presentation
skills. Thus, I believe that splitting the Training period into Article
ship and Industrial Training would be very much beneficial for students
in getting good exposure and would improve his/her presentation skills.
3) Practical Assessment Test: ICAI has recently come
up with practical assessment Test for students undergoing article ship.
But if you see the Question Paper, it's again sort of theoretical based
and student's who have taken CA Final Coaching can perform better than a
student who is actually doing Article ship seriously.
Why can't we have an actual practical assessment test i.e. giving
student's Questions related to Tax return filing/ROC Compliance/Balance
sheet Finalization etc. instead of paper-based MCQs??
Another suggestion is to allot grades to CA Firms also based on the
Student's performance and make a region-wise annual report public
showing CA Firm grade/performance so that student's looking for article
ship get a fair idea in selection of the firm. Let's make members also
accountable!!!!
4) Introduce concept of Work Diaries: Yes, I am
serious!! If we are really serious about article ship then this concept
should be introduced wherein a student should be required to submit
monthly summary of the work done by him and this should be certified by
him. Obviously, a utility/structure can be decided by officials but this
concept will make students and principals very much serious about
article ship.
I am focusing so much on article ship is because this 3-year period will define a student's career and our profession's future.
5) Centralized Evaluation of Answer sheets across all Levels: Yes,
this can be done as ICAI is no short of Funds as Annual Accounts for FY
2017-18 reflects a net surplus of more than 188 Crore and thus this is
the right place to invest. All the big examination boards like CBSE and
other examination bodies maintain a specific location as a center to
Invite all the examiners at one place and check all the answer sheets.
This totally works as Quality Check for the evaluation done by the
examiner.
6) Rechecking of Papers should be allowed to students:
Yes, this is should be allowed and why not?? Paper Evaluators are also
human beings and thus they are bound to commit mistakes. But this
mistake can take a family's six months or might land a student in
depression.
For God Sake make whatever amendments are required from legal point
of view and give this right to students. ICAI may charge some amount so
that only genuine cases make an application but this right should be
given with immediate effect.
7) Objective/Open Book Exams should be encouraged:
Why you want students to cramp law?? Why can't there be 100% application
oriented and case studies-based questions. Yes, ICAI has come up with
MCQs and this is a welcome step but this % should increased from 30% to
at least 50% so that human involvement is reduced. I am in favor of Open
book exams also but this is not possible for all papers so more of
objective questions-based papers should be encouraged.
8) More Soft Skills sessions (MCS): Everybody say
that we chartered accountants lack in presentation skills. But do you
think that saying this is enough or we need a solution? The solution is
to have more MCS like sessions which actually improve your presentation
skills. Just like we have CPE hours for members we should also think of
presentation skills sessions for students.
These were certain suggestions which I would like to give to ICAI and
reason why I am putting it in social media is because social media is a
better medium to communicate with ICAI rather than Emails.