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| CAT fiasco: Govt convenes IIM directors meet |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Dec 14, 2009, 18:39 IST |
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Unhappy over thousands of students failing to write the Common Admission Test (CAT) due to technical problems, the government has convened a meeting of IIM directors on Wednesday to express its concerns.
Higher Education Secretary Vibha Puri Das will chair the meeting of IIM directors to discuss the issue in detail, a Human Resource Development Ministry official said.
Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has already expressed displeasure over students facing problem during the computerised test which was marred by glitches from its beginning. The issue was raised in Parliament when BJP members criticised the government for the fiasco.
The test, which was supposed to be taken by 2.41 lakh students, was conducted by an American firm Prometric in a staggered manner over 11 days. However, all candidates failed to appear in the test due to the "virus attack".
Meanwhile, the IIM directors met in Mumbai yesterday where they reviewed the entire computerised test and tried to assess the problem.
The ministry is expected to tell the IIM directors to have a foolproof system in place to avoid any such problem in future. Sibal has already said that precautions should have been taken before starting the computer-based CAT.
The CAT was disrupted by virus attack from the first day of the test, which was supposed to be held over 10 days. About 8,500 candidates could not appear in the test in the first four days due to the glitch. The test was extended by a day also as it ended on December eight.
Thousands of IIM aspirants have failed to appear in the CAT, IIM Ahmedabad, which is the nodal IIM for the CAT this year, has said.
A new test date will be announced in about a fortnight to provide an opportunity to all such candidates to write the test, it said.
About 20,000 candidates were rescheduled after the test was affected by the virus attack and other technical problems.
CAT was held through 361 labs in 104 locations spread across 32 cities.
Candidates have reported through various channels the nature of disruptions faced that include pressing of 'End' button prematurely, malfunctioning of computer on which the test was taken by the candidate, missing graphs and charts.
The IIM has assured the candidates that the outcome of the process on completion would be fair to all candidates.
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