Thousands of Chartered Accountant (CA) candidates have staged protest against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) demanding reforms in the examination process. Among all the list of changes they requested, the right to re-evaluate answer sheets stand as a significant one. Students have taken to streets and social media platforms asking the institute to amend ICAI Regulation 39 (4) of the CA Regulations, 1988. They are expressing their concern alongside hashtags, ‘Dear ICAI Amend 39 (4),’ ‘ICAI Amend 39 (4),’ and ‘Dear ICAI Please Change.’ Below, in this article, we present you the list of changes that students are demanding from ICAI. CA Students Stage Protest Across India, Demand Re-Evaluation of Answer Sheets Among Other Paper-Checking Reforms. 

ICAI has changed the mode of paper checking and introduced the digital method to ignore irregularities in the process. However, that did not meet the concern of the students. They continue to protest against the institute and are demanding some significant changes in CA exams. As per the existing Regulation 39 (4), students are not allowed to use his or her copy of the answer paper to demand revaluation of the answers by ICAI. While a candidate can demand re-totalling of marks in his/her answer copy, he or she cannot expect the institute to examine the merit of not awarding scores for a particular answer.

CA Students Take to Twitter Demanding Reforms: 

List of Changes Demanded by CA Students

  • Students shall give a right to avail re-evaluation of their answer papers.

  • Provide booklet of MCQs and disclose correct answers while giving the certified copies. Till date, the institute provides only the copies of descriptive answers written by the students in exams.

  • Penalise those (evaluators and examiners) if they are caught making mistakes while correcting answer papers.

  • Instead of a pencil, the students shall be allowed to darken the circles on OMR sheets in examinations with pens. They have alleged that pencil marks get erased easily while transporting and handling the answer sheets.

  • Enable centralised evaluation of the exam answer sheets. The current system involves sending bundles of answer papers to a personal address provided by the examiners by post.

ICAI’s recent reforms include Digital evaluation, Central evaluation, Machine based evaluation, stepwise marking and Mandatory online test for empanelment of examiners. However, CA educators and students have alleged that the new changes are vague, calling ICAI’s system unfair. Amid the ongoing protest, the institute is yet to react. Last year too, students gathered, demanding the body to amend Regulation 39 (4), after alleged instances of errors in the evaluation of the examination surfaced.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 25, 2019 12:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).