The Hindu Business Line : Does CPT bark for BAC?

A decade ago Council Members of the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) were of the view that students entering the course through the Foundation stream lacked the requisite maturity for undergoing articleship and, hence, suggested that those passing the PE-II exam alone should get into articleship. That is history now.

With pressure from Members and the public on the extended duration of the course, the Council went on to suggest the CPT (Common Proficiency Test) route in 2006 and successfully implemented the same. The past two examinations have seen almost 30,000 students successfully complete the same. The sheer number of passes would obviate the need for any graduates entering the course directly in future. Be that as it may, many problems have, however, crept in with regard to CPT students joining articleship.

The basic problem faced by the CPT students is that they are not able to effectively balance between their desire for graduation and undergoing Articleship. Many of them are already half-way through their graduation, and the current incumbents are in a dilemma, that is, whether to join college full-time or go through correspondence.

Route to take

To do justice to the course, the only possible choice for the CPT students is to go through the correspondence route. With the timing of the office of the principal (CA) being between 9 am and 8 pm and with most colleges, especially in the South, working during 8 am to 1 pm, 1 pm to 6 pm or 3 pm to 8 pm, the forty hours of mandatory training in a week has become impractical. Though there is no need for students to obtain permission from the Institute to do their graduation, they are faced with this dilemma.

Three decades ago, stalwarts of the profession were very clear that students joining the chartered accountancy course should possess, firstly, a certain level of maturity and, secondly, the aptitude.

While there is no second opinion about the observation, the current problem faced both by the CPT entrants and by the principals is one of maturity. Unlike the Foundation/PE-I schemes, wherein there was some focus on the fundamentals and concepts of accounting, the current CPT examination pattern has resulted in more arbitrariness from the students' point of view.

Every chartered accountancy firm has to now be converted into an elementary school for teaching the skills of auditing and accounting. Though it is a must from a larger perspective, one is not sure whether these firms have the aptitude in imparting the requisite training. Added to this, students will also not be able to comprehend the nature of work, as it demands a knowledge of accounting and auditing standards, taxation, etc.

The question, therefore, is how to bridge this gap. Earlier, students joining the Pre-University Course after completing their SSLC had to necessarily undergo a `Bridge Course' in English. Perhaps, it is time that the ICAI started BAC, a Bridge Articleship Course.