The Ho-Halla over the online CAT exam in India has just started. It's the beginning of the phase where lawsuits and open appeals will start pouring against the IIM's and various experts (so called) will start giving their (unwanted) views. Poor students will suffer and Prometric will make money. The IIM's may or may not decide to revert to paper pencil test which is favored by many as the only way of judging talent. But the point of this article is entirely different. I just saw the other side of the coin....
It started like this.....
A guy wanted to give CAT to join IIM. So he just waited for the CAT advertisement in the papers. The day advertisement was published, he went to purchase the form. What he got, to his surprise, was a voucher. so the rumors of CAT going online were finally coming true. The first step; filling of the forms went online. So for the first time, he was allowed to make a mistake and correct the same without losing a single penny. There were some mistakes in the software which were solved by PROMETRIC after few mails and paper articles. India got its first public sight of working on its toes and issue resolving.
The admit cards were generated on time and were mailed promptly. The need to run from pillar to post in case of lost admit cards was long gone. The admit card was available on click of a button. Even if you delete the mail, second mail will reach you in seconds. If there were any mistakes, concerns; Resolution was just a mail away. Quality concerns and customer satisfaction were never cared at this level before.Well the game had just begun!!!!!
The day of exam came and the guy entered the exam hall. The all time trusted copy materials like Pen, Mobile, Wallet, Rs 10 notes etc etc etc were all outside the hall. Even the water bottle had to part away. So there was no option of copying. Papers were different for everyone. So even if you manage to peep into neighbors machine, you were bound to come back empty handed. The principle of fairness was holding true to the utmost level. The ones who actually poured their hearts into preparation of the exam were happy to the core.
So after entry into the hall, the documents were strictly (really strictly) checked and the folks were moved to next level of screening; The Biometric Checks. Cameras, finger print scanners, PC's and all the required hardware was lying there. The photo was taken and matched with the one on ID-Card. No fake personification allowed mate. Finger prints were taken quickly and the machine was allotted online. The guy went to his allotted machine and was hardly prepared for one more surprise. His machine displayed his details with the photo just taken. No escape routes, no loopholes. May be Nandan Nilekani can take some clue from here. The process was just perfect. There was absolutely no chance to say, "Ye India hai... Sab chalta hai yaha pe" (This is India and anything is digested here).
The guy finally settled down in his chair and waited for the process to get over for others and the start of exam. He was looking at the facilities installed. Every center was provided with at least 12 cameras and they were functional too. :) There was a separate server room from where these camera feeds were monitored. The colleges were allowed to use these facilities for the whole year. So colleges were provided with hi-tech gadgets to stop the practice of copying in the exam. This will make the students strive more and the general efforts level will go high. Indian talent just got one more reason to be smarter.
The servers were maintained at the best level. Though there were some virus problems, the issues were resolved within a day or two. Working on war footing. That's what was shown to the Indian Babus. The exam went smooth with 10% rate of failure. That is a good ratio for the first timers. It happened for the first time in the world. 2 lakh and 75 thousand students gave online test within 10 days. What was more impressive is the accountability that PROMETRIC showed. They accepted the fault in the face, they apologized for the same in front of whole world without pointing fingers, came out with a firm plan to resolve issues. Set up a call center to quench the queries of thousands if not lakhs. Everyone was provided with a channel to vent out their anger, questions, feedback and all feelings.
That's something worth a pat on back. The PROMETRIC just raised the bar of professionalism and accountability. What they have done should be an inspiring story for the others to follow if not surpass. It just took the Indian Public Service Industry by storm. It may have been in news for all the wrong reasons but it sure has done enough to explore the new heights of providing service with quality.
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