No Retest: IIMs fail to do the right thing

The IIMs and the HRD ministry have decided to not go down the retest route. CAT 2009 has been the most mismanaged mess of an exam in recent history and yet the IIMs have decided that it would be better to harm a few thousand students than to do the right thing. Right from day one, the complaints have been both loud and diverse. Cheating, mismanagement, leaks, rampant reboots, viruses and general all round mismanagement – all issues have been brought forth by the students and the powers to be have chosen to ignore them all.

During CAT 2003, a handful of people were affected by the CAT leak but the blatant compromise of the exam got the authorities to act fast and preserve the ‘sanctity’ of the exam. This time however, the authorities didn’t seem to care. The media reported about same questions being repeated, questions being leaked, mismanagement at centers, all around inconvenience to candidates, the rampant cheating – but nothing was able to move the IIMs towards preserving the sanctity of the exam. An institution that espouses world-class values has fallen short of the character it should have had. They seem to have forgotten that doing the right thing is the only thing.

For those who haven’t yet taken the test this year: New test dates will be available in the middle of January, said Prof. Barua, Director IIM-A.