ICAI students protest across states, demand reforms in evaluation

Thousands of students on Monday gathered to protest against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) alleging error in evaluation of papers, reported Hindustan Times. At ICAI Delhi, over 1000 people came out expressing their dissatisfaction at various mishandling of evaluation by the ICAI.

Two days back, ICAI had published an announcement on its website that read, “It has been brought to our notice that certain adverse reports relating to the system of evaluation of answer books of CA exams are doing the rounds on social media. In this connection, the following reforms which have been put in place recently are brought to the attention of the stakeholders in respect of the ICAI examination system.”

The candidates who are now protesting at the ICAI office near ITO Delhi allege that they were not given stepwise marking while many allege that in multiple-choice-questions (MCQ) they were not given any marks even to those with correct answers.

A tweet by a candidate says the students want the following demands to be taken seriously by the ICAI:

1) Re-Correction

2) Give Ques Booklet of MCQs and Disclose correct Answers while providing certified copies

3) Penalize Paper Checkers for wrong checking

4) Dark the MCQs With Pen In exams

5) Centralised Evaluation

According to a Twitter user, in the subjective papers of CA exams, there have been many cases where that examiners have allegedly checked exam copies carelessly, given exam copies to unqualified checkers to get it checked. Many CA students allege that only 3-4 pages of exam copies have been checked at times and rest were left allegedly unchecked. There are cases when even MCQs have been incorrectly checked.

Unlike CBSE, where a rule states that examiners have to gather at one place to check answer sheets, ICAI answer sheets are checked by examiners who can get it checked by anyone and anywhere.

Till 2018, there was a clause in the CA act which did not allow you to even show your certified copy to anyone, which was revoked last year after protests.

Moreover, even if a student has some doubts about his result and marks, he can't even apply for re-evaluation. The agitating students emphatically said that they had only one demand that the students can have their papers re-evaluated/rechecked. If this is not possible then ICAI should have all papers in MCQ form on OMR sheets.

Many who deserved to pass have been failed just due to this. Many are stuck in this course forever. Many have died of suicide, the protesting candidates rued.