News

Volume 6 Issue 10 - November 01, 2009

The ‘C.A.T.’ is belled!

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: The Ministry of Human Resource Development has asked the Director of the Indian Institute of Management (I.I.M.), Ahmedabad, Dr. Samir Barua to respond to N.C.P.E.D.P.’s concerns regarding the online C.A.T. examinations not being disabled friendly and its “failure on both technical and conceptual grounds”. This comes after N.C.P.E.D.P. wrote to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh about the indifferent attitude of both, the I.I.M. authorities and the Ministry of Human Resource Development on this issue.

C.A.T. examinations for admission to the prestigious I.I.M.s were made online this year. However, the website, www.catiim.in, failed on 11 counts of W.C.A.G. 2.0 Level A compliance and 5 counts of W.C.A.G. 2.0 Level A.A. This was reported in the September 15 issue of D.N.I.S. However, rather than taking remedial steps, the I.I.M. Ahmedabad authorities took a confrontational stand.

As a mark of protest, Javed Abidi, Honorary Director, N.C.P.E.D.P, turned down an invitation from I.I.M. Ahmedabad to deliver a lecture on disability issues and social entrepreneurship. In his letter to Dr. Barua, Abidi wrote, “When I was invited for the lecture, I was delighted and moved by the Institute’s desire to sensitise its students, the future business leaders of the country. Now, however, the feeling is that of disappointment and disbelief.”

“When the teachers themselves seem to be ignorant, indifferent and insensitive towards social issues, I fail to see how a lecture on sensitizing the students is going to be of any consequence,” he added.

It may be mentioned that as many as 763 disabled candidates have registered for the examination this year.