HRD Ministry mulls CAT in Hindi

NDTV Correspondent
Sunday, April 30, 2006 (Ahmedabad):
The Common Admission Test (CAT) for application to the IIMs may soon be conducted in regional languages.Many in the IIM (Ahmedabad) faculty believe that the prestigious management exam should be conducted in Hindi and other regional languages. They say the move will encourage students from backward and rural backgrounds to take the exam. "The access to the IIMs gets limited to those who have reasonable familiarity with English as a language. Why should that be the case?," said Professor Sebastian Morris, Senior faculty, IIM-A.The English verbal ability test is one of the main components of the CAT exam. So while students unfamiliar with the language may do exceedingly well in papers like quantitative ability or data analysis, they do not manage a seat because of their low marks in the verbal ability test. "For a certain segment of students who do not come from a good English medium background, qualifying in CAT becomes tough," said Vivek Tuteja, Director of CAT Training Institute.NDTV has also learnt that the HRD Ministry has been toying with the idea of asking the IIMs to conduct CAT in Hindi but nothing has been finalised till date. Discussions on administering CAT in regional languages will be held at the next meeting of the Board before this year's CAT, which is slated for November.If the move comes through, a new CAT exam in regional languages may just prove to be a boon for hundreds around the country.