ICAI students' protest: 10 things you need to know

In the last couple of days, thousands of students of the Chartered Accountants (CA) course waged a mass protest against the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) across the country over the alleged discrepancies in the evaluation of their examination papers.

"Under the coding system, nobody can identify which answer paper belongs to whom. It is absolutely human untouched system,"  CA Prafulla P Chhajed, President Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said on Thursday. He added that 10% of papers are reviewed to ensure quality check and students can apply for re-evaluation.

Here's the list of important things that you need to know about the ongoing protest:

1. Regarding evaluation of answer books of it's Chartered Accountancy (CA) exams, ICAI made an announcement on September 21, followed by a webinar which was conducted on September 22, in which the procedure and processes followed in the examination system were explained.

2. The protesters want a complete re-evaluation of the answer sets seeking for a answer-by-answer re-evaluation of the answer papers in question.

3. The amendment that the protesting students sought allows for verification of "whether the candidate's answers in any particular paper or papers have been examined and marked, and not for the re-examination of the answers."

4. As per the provisions of Regulations 39(4) of Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988, the correction of marks is awarded only in three cases: a) When no marks are awarded to any answer or part of it, b) If there are totaling errors in step-wise marks awarded for an answer, and c) If there is the wrong carry forward or its part of marks awarded to answer on the cover page of the answer books, the Institute said.

5. The demands also include centralising evaluation, penalising the exam evaluators if mistakes are found, permission to mark the circles on OMR sheets in exams with pens.

6. According to ICAI, a few answer books that have been circulated in social media alleging mistakes in evaluation, have been checked and from the records of the institute it was noted that none of these relate to May 2019 examination as has been claimed.

7. ICAI has given clarification that they will go as per the extant regulations, therefore there will be no possible changes. Students will be able to get all answers re-evaluated only if the law is changed.

8. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday came in support of the protesting students, he said that their demand for re-evaluation of the answer sheets was justified and should be supported by all political parties.

9. Neeraj Arora, a CA and an educator, released a video on YouTube which led to the outrage on social media. He asked the ICAI to reform the marking system so that deserving students get their due.

10. Protesting Students have been advised by the ICAI that in case they find any error in providing step-wise marks, they can send a mail about the same at [e-mail] and [e-mail].