Online CAT a setback for rural aspirants?

With the Common Admission Test (CAT) organised by Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) going online from November 2009, the going may get tough for the rural student community, say educationists.

Teachers who have been preparing students to realise their dreams for the most sought after management courses believe this decision is not fair. There are also others who say that this is a welcome step and would make the test more convenient for all.

The test is held for admissions in various post-graduate management courses in the country.

"The decision is biased on the part of such reputed institutions as students in rural areas are not as tech-savvy as students in urban sector. They should think of the such aspirants for whom technology is still a barrier," says Ulhas Vairegkar, Director of a coaching institute.

"Power cuts, uninterrupted internet connectivity will be the major obstacles for regional centres where the test will be conducted," he adds.

A few management gurus are, however, of the opinion that this year's online test will be more student-friendly as it is on a CBT (computer-based test) pattern to be held in a ten-day time frame and not on CAT (Computer adaptive test) one.

The CBT pattern enables an examinee to scroll the question paper and allows to attempt any question of his choice first, which is not possible in the latter format, academic head of another management institute Career Launcher, Shiv Kumar says.

"The decision to go online for the tests would also mean heavy investment on the part of the government as each computer setup will cost Rs one lakh per student," says Vairegkar, adding that there may be a fee hike in the entire procedure. Last year around three lakh students appeared for the CAT.

"From the perspective of students from weak financial background this would be a burden," he emphasises.

Manu Gupta who is appearing for CAT this year expresses concern that holding the exam on a 10 days duration pattern will "involve risk of paper leakage".

"The major difficulty will be that we won't be able to know our scores on an all-India basis in mock CAT because it requires a huge infrastructural setup," he says.

Another student Nishant Prasad from IIM-Banglore feels that this will be convenient for working class aspirants.

"This decision taken by IIMs is truly welcome. In a way, this is convenient for working class aspirants. The test will be held in a duration of 10 days with a slot of their own choice," he says.

Bracing up to match the recent decision, Career Launcher's small town centres are also preparing for it, Sandeep Ahuja, head of the Jhansi centre says.