MUMBAI: Thousands of aspirants planning to take the cost and management accounting exam were in for a shock when the institute suddenly announced it will be computer based and online.
Over the weekend, the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) stated the July exam that was postponed multiple times this year and then merged with the December attempt, would indeed be held from December 8 to 15, but only in 93 cities. The president said due to some glitch, the exam would not be held in four cities and they would be only partially offered in 11. Candidates from such cities would have to take the exam from January 3.
“Nothing is in pen and paper today. We want to go global,” ICAI president P Raju Iyer. Ashwinkumar Dalwadi, a council member said, “We have decided that henceforth, our exams are going to be computer based. We have to progress. There could be anxiousness among students and we are ready to address them.”
The June attempt of the bi-annual exam was pushed due to Covid. Both the CA institute and the CS institute, though, managed to take in-person exams. “There was no clear communication for months from the ICAI on when the exams would be held and there were so many dates floating around,” said an aspirant from Mumbai. “Students had a hard time because of complete lack of information. Suddenly, it was decided to merge the two attempts and the ICAI announced that exams would be held in December,” said Jinesh Shah, a faculty member.
There were other troubles. The institute has not got enough centres to run the exam. In some cases, computers offered were old machines that were slow and not compatible with the exam software and certain centres were not available for the entire stretch of the exam week.
“While this is a professional exam, we are not accustomed to solving problems on computer. This was a sudden decision to hold the computer-based exam and was not notified to us,” said another aspirant. Students had moved the Supreme Court seeking its direction to conduct all CMA exams offline. SC refused to intervene and said the decision by the institute will be final and binding.
