Catch them when they are Young ? ICAI tells Govt

Catch them Young! This is the new mantra of the ICAI, the apex body governing accounting professionals in the country, which feels students opting for the profession are few and far between.

Looking to attract more and more students to become part of its fraternity, ICAI President T N Manoharan on Thursday appealed to the government to include commerce as a mandatory subject in schools starting from class eight, instead of the senior secondary level. ? The economy is booming and there is a shortage of Chartered Accountants in the country, we need to have higher number of students taking up the accountancy profession which can happen only when more students are exposed to the basics of commerce from an early age ? Mr Manoharan said after ICAI released its new curriculum for CA Students. The new curriculum has reduced the course length by around one year to four years. Currently, around 7,500 ? 8000 CAs pass out annually and the ICAI president said there was shortage of around 25,000 ? 30,000 professionals.

? If Companies come to campuses to hire 20 CAs, they manage to get only five. This situation needs to improve ?he said. As per the existing course structure, students are exposed to commerce only at the senior secondary school level or eleventh onwards, if they choose not to opt for science or arts stream. ? We feel that if it is taught from the eight standard onwards, many of the students will find it interesting and opt for commerce stream in the eleventh standard instead of science or arts stream ? Mr. Manoharan said.


Source: The Economic Times 22th September 2006