CA Students' protest: ICAI President Prafulla Chhajed breaks silence. Here's what he said
ICAI President Prafulla Chhajed finally broke silence over CA students' protest demanding re-evaluation of answer sheets. On allegations of error in evaluation of papers, ICAI President Prafulla Chhajed said the system is absolutely human untouched.
"Under coding system, nobody can identify which answer paper belongs to whom. It is absolutely human untouched system," Prafulla Chhajed said amid social media furore.
Several CA students have been protesting against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) demanding re-evaluation of their answer sheets. CA Students are holding protests outside ICAI Office in ITO, Delhi. Protests are taking place throughout India, including Durgapur, Siliguri, Bhilwara, Hyderabad and Jaipur. CA students are demanding better transparency in the paper evaluation process. A massive social media furore erupted on Tuesday where CA students questioned ICAI President Prafulla Chhajed over his silence.
Appearing before the media today, ICAI President Prafulla Chhajed said: "10% of papers are reviewed to ensure quality check. Students can also apply for re-evaluation. Indian Chartered Accountant qualification is a benchmark against those of various advanced countries."
ALSO READ | CA Students' protest: ICAI President faces social media fury
ALSO READ | Why are CA students protesting
Why are CA Students out on roads against ICAI:
CA students aRe demanding right to seek re-evaluation of answer sheets, supply of the question booklet and answer papers on request, penalty for wrong evaluation of the answer-sheet, permission darken circles on OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets in examinations with pens and centralised evaluation of papers.
CA students are alleging that pencil marks get erased during the transportation and handling of answer-sheets, and that ICAI provides only copies of descriptive answers and not those of multiple-choice questions (MCQs).
Chartered Accountancy students/aspirants have long been raising certain issues. However, the protests gained momentum when CA students noticed discrepancies in answer papers, copies of which were obtained from the ICAI. As alleged, in some cases marks were not awarded for correct answers. In other cases, number on the result card were lower than that was written on answer-sheets.
Thus, CA students are demanding amendment to Regulation 39(4) of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949. According to this regulation, students cannot demand revaluation of their answers by the ICAI. All they can avail is re-totalling of marks. They cannot even question the merit of not awarding numbers for a particular answer.
Under pressure ICAI did announce some reforms in evaluation of answer-sheets on September 1. But they were termed vague and non-transparent.
