Delhi: CA students protest against ICAI's evaluation methods

Students and Chartered Accountants (CA) on Monday protested against the Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) urging the body to end its alleged practice of "moderating" the results of examinations held by it.

The protestors gathered outside the headquarters of the ICAI near ITO office to stage a demonstration.

"We are protesting against the moderation of the results in the exams held by the ICAI. Candidates are not given marks even in the multiple-choice questions (MCQ). This is done under Section 39 of the CA Regulation which gives ICAI the right to manipulate marks in order to maintain their passing ratio," Tarun Choudhary, a student at the protest told ANI here.

Choudhary further alleged that the institute acting on its whim was not awarding full marks to students even in the MCQ segment.

The protest gained steam on social media with the hashtag DearICAIpleasechange soon beginning to trend on Twitter.

The CA course comprises of three stages of examination, CA- Foundation (entry-level), Intermediate and Final.

The students allege that the institute deliberately tampered with the results in the second and third stages to suit its passing percentage.

CA Sachin Gupta, a private teacher who had arrived at the protest to show solidarity with the protesting students claimed that tampering with results in the name of moderation had been going on for some years now and alleged that it was the fault of the examiners.

"They have been manipulating the evaluation for the past many years to maintain a passing percentage. Despite multiple assurances, they continue to fail students year after year. We want them to put an end to the scaling system. Some evaluators who are practising CAs treat theses exams as a side business. The institute maintains a low standard for admitting students into the course but the students are failed repeatedly for five to six years as the level of the course increases," Gupta told ANI.

"We are requesting them to introduce a uniform checking parameter, preferably by OMR sheet," Gupta added.

Niraj Arora, a practising CA who was at the protest site said, "They are slashing marks even if the students provide the correct answers and this is being done under the name of moderation. We request all the people to join us and put pressure on the institute to change its ways. We are here to make people aware of our issues.