Autonomy of IIMs at stake
The continued failure of the CAT online examination has
made it necessary for the GOI to order an enquiry. If the enquiry is held
fairly, it is more or less certain that IIM Administration along with
Prometric would be held to be at fault on various grounds. The surfeit of
criticisms appearing on the press also indicate that the possibilities of
Courts taking a strong adverse view of CAT-2009 is very high.
Under the circumstances, as a premier management
institution, IIM has do display its ability to drive through a crisis. As
we often say, “The character of a person is displayed not when he falls
down but when he gets up”. Now it is time for IIMs to display this
character which should reflect admission of its fault in not conducting a
dry run, not consulting IS specialists, and not having a backup plan.
My sincere request to IIMs is not to stand on false
prestige, not to spend time on blaming others but to act and act now
without any further delay.
The decision can only be one. Scrap CAT 2009 now and
prepare for a manual test to be conducted at a short time. I udnerstand
that they may need a time of 30 to 45 days to conduct the test again. But
this is absolutely necessary to show to the Government that “while we admit
a failure, we are capable of making corrections” .
At the same time, it is necessary for Prometric to
absorb all the costs of the re-test. Prometric is at fault in not using
sanitized machines for the test and also for not conducting a dry run of
its own. Its failure to force a dry run only means that they were not
professional or wanted to cut costs. All their so called reputation has
gone for a toss. An Indian company would have done far better than this US
based company and they also need to admit their fault.
If Prometric fails to voluntarily pick up the cost of
running the manual test and compensate the IIMs for the financial loss,
IIMs should launch a legal action on Prometric and claim compensation not
only for the non delivery of services but also for the cost of running the
manual re-test and for causing a reputation loss to the IIMs.
If IIMs donot take this tough stand, it would provide a
good excuse for GOI to say that “IIMs are inefficient in their
administration and they need to pass on the responsibilities to
bureaucrats”. Are they ready for this kind of development?
Naavi
December 1 ,2009
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Firm IIMs hired to hold online CAT test has failure record.. HT
Comments are Welcome at
naavi@vsnl.com
