CRET Questionnaire for Members, Students, Academicians, Clients

ICAI conducts periodic review of the system of Education and Training so that it is responsive to changing environment both at national and international levels. In consonance with this policy, the Council of ICAI has set up the present Committee for Review of Education and Training (CRET), to review the existing system of education and training including the curriculum and to examine whether or not it is adequate in the context of existing requirements and anticipated changes in the environment. The CRET broadly focuses on five main areas, namely, Entry Requirement, Practical Training, Course Curriculum, Examination System and Accounting Technician Course.

As a part of its methodology to elicit opinion from various stakeholders, i.e., members, students, users and academicians, it is issuing a comprehensive questionnaire for each category of stakeholder(s). You are requested to kindly access the questionnaire through the following link:

http://fb.icaionlineregistration.org:8080/

For any suggestion please write at cret@icai.in

Some Food for Thought on CA Articleship and CA Articles

Issued In The Interest of Article Trainee's (AT)

Many of the students are in dilemma whether Articleship is useful for the future career. The answer is neither Yes nor No. It all depends on the factors which I am mentioning below.

“It is very important for every principle to treat his/her article in a proper manner and should utilize the skills for the benefit of student/article trainee (AT)” very true , but question is how far the principles are following the guidelines provided by CA Inst. When they (CA Inst) is banning articelship
transfer why not they impose some restriction on CAs in practice to stop misutilization of there right i.e. harassing the articles undergoing training under them by any means.

There is lot of options available to make articleship impressive from the current state. Few suggestions are to organize Financial Quizzes, get together meets, separate grievance for article trainees etc.

Financial Quizzes : To judge and built article trainees (ATs) analytical skills
Get together : Best way to increase networking
Grievance forum : To resolve queries and grievances of article trainee (AT) on time
Lot of students are getting limited knowledge in the articles period why because their principle is using them for their personal work say deposit light bill, telephone bills etc. We can not imagine how far they may go!
L
One of my bro’s friend goes to of office just to deposits bills, or to do personal work of CA or other works like courier etc.

Then in such environment do you think even students would like to do articleship? Answer is no, they don’t want to be just trainee in articleship. Even they can not raise their voice to protect themselves from the obvious injustice. What is the reason? May be CA Institute, which is empowered to power articles, could not provide proper rights to the AT’s. Opposite to it, it has imposed restriction on articles by banning transfers etc. I think AT’s right should not be limited to their principle but should also be govern by CA Inst. I am sure that would help to improve articles situation.

Now some of you say “The ground realities are different, we have joined a professional course but if we are not getting professional work at of offices then what is the need of that articleship. Have we joined course to know how
to get a drop a bill in billbox or how to get a railway ticket or carry files behind our principle just to stay outside the room of AO. What kind of development is this?”
I agreed with the above text, it is the hard fact which we all know but can not do anything until given the power.

CA Inst has it but of no use if not use it correctly.

Things get worse when the first batch of CPT students passed out. The result was humungous. Almost 67% !!! & there was shortage of CA  firms to absorb them. Many students got articlehsip in the  firms which were not of their choice but they had to continue articleship anyhow. Since then CA Inst could not make the situation much better.

ICAI should have thought of such shortcomings but what they did and what happened in reality , they only can answer.
Read it somewhere that now the situation is totally different. Now u might see vacancies in the CA firms as the supply has been cut down due to the introduction of IPCC scheme. Now you can get the articleship in a comparatively good firm. In fact now the CA firms are ready to pay more stipend.

Where are the good firms ? Are you talking about Big 4, they are still reluctant to take article trainee who don’t have a good approach. If you are not agreeing with me, pls write reasons for mismatch.
One more suggestion to improve AT’s situation is to set a committee which only reviews & take care about ATs queries and conduct inquiry into affaires of CA’s against which they are getting continues complain. This committee can be part of the Grievance forum which I suggested above.

Further one best way to reach large number of students and members are to go online. CA Inst have one forum which many of you may not be aware of but it does not work faster so no use in going their. So I would drop my discussion on this topic here only.
When I was in PE-II, my seniors used to say that every article has to do basic work like  filing, vouching , ledger scrutiny etc. which I think is essential as always its better to know the concept  first and then you can better perform.
Plz do ponder on these things and provide our valuable suggestion here.

Cheers, the Helping Hand
CA CS Prakash Somani

WAKE ME WHEN ‘SEPTEMBER’ ENDS

WAKE ME WHEN ‘SEPTEMBER’ ENDS

If you happen to see few people roaming regularly on streets at 3 or 4 in the morning in the months of September dressed in formals don’t think it’s a new dress code of dacoits to fool you. Those might be poor CA students returning home after a tough day (read night as well) at work. Yes this malnourished breed is known officially as Article assistants. They can be easily identified specially during the months of September; you can identify them with the ‘I-dont-care look’ they wear always during the year. That’s coz they have already many things to bother about. 

So your half day actually begins with the evening snacks, your family has rarely seen you and remember your one month old face. Your home has been renamed as ‘Free Lodging and Boarding’ as you visit this place only for 5-6 hours of sleep during ‘the month’. Sleep? Forget about it when it’s about a week to go for the month end. You eat in office, sleep in office, do possibly all the things in office, you become RNOR of office and NOR at home!

The office chair literally becomes a ‘hot-seat’ as people hatch on it for at least 12-14 hours daily! Not that you can’t fall ill in this month, but you just can’t fall ill for the season. Ok, casual approved leave? Ha ha ha, it’s a wrong question. Forget about casual, approved, planned leaves. They just don’t exist in the September season. Only Ganpati bappa helps for two days depending when HE wants to celebrate his arrival and departure. 

You haven’t chit-chatted with your so called friends since a month, you cannot and absolutely cannot assure where you gonna be at so and so date and at so and so time. Because you never really know at first place whether you’ll be in city or at some outstation client place. 

It is like becoming stranger to the whole of the world. That one month you feel all of the things had to happen all together now only. So you are ill but can’t rest at home coz you can’t handover your half-done work. It’s your friend’s wedding or birthday but cant visit and so you get good ‘remarks’ (read bad words) from your friends.  

Its one crazy month where everyone is counting each and every single day by hours and minutes to get over. As the days approach towards the due date; the pressure, excitement, tension build up exponentially. In the last week of September the situation is like you have been gifted with 2 brains and extra 2 hands. So there is no guarantee what you’ll eat in office for lunch, dinner, snacks or even you gotta be lucky to have your food in time and at peace. 

I remember being in Mumbai for 4 days to go for the Due date. I posted on Facebook “In Mumbai for since 3 days :|  “ .. Another CA-victim-friend of mine based in Mumbai commented “How dare you not call me or meet?” I had to reply.. “Bhai, have seen nothing of Mumbai except the Office premises and my Hotel Room!! “which fetched many likes. So it is the ping-pong game played from office to home, home to office during the Season.

 This is really the phase where you find yourself, discover yourself. It happens so; that you never knew you had it in you. You are squeezed and squeezed and the juice is extracted. The working capacity increases like magic trick, the patience level enhances and so does the maturity level. With everyday you learn, you learn to say yes, you learn to say No (I don’t know yet how to do that), you learn to ask and you learn to teach. One very noticeable aspect is the communication network. The coordination amongst colleagues, the sharing and caring and lending the helping hand is inexplicable. The team sharing and caring cannot be put in words.

And since you become stranger to the whole world you are bound to become close to the people you spend so much time with. The office politics, the work pressure, the back bitching and you have it all.

The pressure cooker tension till midnight of 30^th September/November (thanks to amendment) is hell like. The client is shouting, your team mates are shouting, your Boss is shouting and possibly everyone is shouting. The chaos is not realized because you are already a part of it. And as soon as you have filed that last Return on 30^th September close to midnight you feel like you have climbed the Everest. The feeling, the joy, the relived and escaped soul soothes you to no extent. And you suddenly feel it was all worth it.

An experience is an experience! Handling the daily work pressure, the due dates staring in your face, you have it all in the month of September. No wonder why so many students sing ‘Wake me up when September ends’ to boost their morale. Let me sign off saying ‘have fun’ this Season, coz if you don’t enjoy the work, the season; then you’ve not realized your true potential, the true ‘You’.

                                                                                  

By: Niraj Mahajan

CA Final Student

E: nirajdmahajan@gmail.com