NEW DELHI: The failure of the online Common Admission Test has bruised the brand Indian Institutes of Management. With an estimated 18% of examinees unable to take the exam because of technical glitches, the IIMs came under fire in Parliament and outside for the massive bungle.
According to estimates by IIM-Ahmedabad which conducted the test, 8,297 of 45,367 candidates were displaced due to software viruses, technical glitches including hardware failures (servers, network switches) and power outages. The test was conducted in 104 test sites across 32 centres. In a report to the government, CAT convener Satish Deodhar assured that those who could not take the test would get another opportunity.
But neither the assurance nor the statement that the number of students who took the exams would go up when all details were in, could save the IIMs in Parliament where the issue figured in both Houses. “CAT ko mouse kha gaya,” deputy leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj said. Her remark attracted cries of "shame, shame" from the Opposition benches. On Monday, Bharat Raut of Shiv Sena had also demanded that facts be placed before the Rajya Sabha.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal was not harsh, but made plain the government's unhappiness over the fiasco. He acknowledged that 18% was a large percentage and suggested that IIMs erred by not having a dry run. “Steps should have been taken before to ensure that the examination does not face any technical glitches," said the minister.
Sources in the government said: “IIMs never kept the ministry informed about the details of online test.
Significantly, in his report to the HRD ministry, Deodhar has neither regretted the failure nor revealed anything that is not already known. The report does not mention why no mock test was conducted to check the efficacy of the system.
In his one-page report sent to the ministry on Tuesday, Deodhar stood by the choice of Prometric, the company that conducted the online test, calling it a world leader in computerized test delivery.
The report said that on Saturday, there were 47 unplanned site outages, displacing 2,022 out of 15,650 candidates who took the online test. Also, 24 labs were repaired on Saturday.
On Sunday, there were 23 planned and 20 planned site outages, displacing 4,292 out of 18,808 candidates. Ten labs were repaired.
The figure for the number of candidates who took the online test on Monday will increase, said the report, since Prometric is in the process of retrieving test results from the site. As per Deodhar's report, there were 33 planned and eight unplanned outages on Monday. So far, 1,983 out of 11,909 candidates have been displaced.
source: TOI