As technical snags continued to disrupt the Common Admission Test (CAT) for the fourth day running, human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal expressed displeasure over the way the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have handled the online test.
Expressing concern over hassles candidates had to face due to software problems, Sibal said precautions should have been taken to avoid last-minute glitches.
“This kind of a situation was avoidable. The IIMs should have taken steps to ensure that such problems did not happen. Out of 45,367 candidates, 8,297 have been affected. This is a very big percentage and the government is concerned about it,” Sibal said.
The CAT issue also figured in Parliament on Tuesday. “The mouse has eaten the CAT,” Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj said, while arguing that the development was a shock for several talented students who had come prepared for the examination.
Amid cries of “shame, shame” from opposition benches, Sushma said it was a matter of regret that India, which boasts of being a superpower in information technology, failed to conduct the online test properly.
It is learnt that the minister has spoken to IIM directors and told them to ensure candidates do not suffer further and that exams should be rescheduled in a way that the fresh dates do not clash with other exams.
The minister clarified that the government was not directly involved in CAT’s conduct.
“The autonomy of the IIMs allows them to hold the test. The decision to hold the exam through computers was taken by the IIMs themselves. The government is not going to interfere in any of their matters. The decisions to make it online, appoint an agent and when to hold the examination were all taken by the IIMs, not by us. We can only request them to ensure that such things do not happen in future,” Sibal said.
The IIMs submitted a report on the CAT issue to the human resource development ministry on Tuesday.
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