The CA syllabus has gone to vast changes since my passing in the year 1987. The number of subjects is ever increasing and new revised syllabus is issued very frequently than earlier. The fast changing economy and various new topics are introduced in the syllabus immediately after their need arises. The ever changing syllabus story may be difficult to grasp as there may not be spread of new subjects and their requirements.
I think we should have basic subjects and skill development subjects to develop the skill to adopt, study, and apply the new subjects whenever they come. Instead of being teaching each and every subject recently in the trend the core syllabus is enough to develop the skill of learning. The GMCS training is the step in this direction. If we introduce each and every subject with A, B., C D numbers the total number is increasing and will be a never ending story. The total number of subjects for final CA are 13 with five subjects attached with number 6 in the form of A,B,C, D, E, F, and if we do not stop here you will find there are 26 alphabets to be attached to 8.Total subjects for CA course are 25. There is a time to ask ourselves, is it required? Are all the subjects useful to all the CA in their future years to come? There may be many more after they became CA or some of these subjects may not be useful to the majority of them.
It is better to reduce the number of subject and introduced the skill level as done in our times that in each subject whether the skill level is reasonable working knowledge, expert knowledge, application knowledge.
In our times we use to learn the case laws where the same are ever changing the new to come and the old ones will be either nullified or of not use. We never got a change to use these case laws in our life time. It means it is changeable variable knowledge to be acquired with skill and not to be a part of syllabus. The rates of Income tax, depreciation, etc are also has the same fate. When the subject is changing very fast then instead of it being in the syllabus the skill should be included. The subjects should be such they should be helpful for majority of the students in their lifetime use.
With the age of goggle where all case laws, recent knowledge of the subjects, latest trends everything is available, how to access the information from the goggle, where and how to use it,, how fast you can update the same is the subject matter and not the subjects itself.
Being good in accounts, it is easy to understand any software of accounting; being good in taxation we can use the taxation software with a great efficiency. These are the basic subjects to be taught. With more and more information is cloud based keeping them in mind and syllabus has no meaning, how fast and from where to get the same should have been the subject matter.
With this introduction, I have some basic idea about what should have been the syllabus; the same is enumerated as follows.
The syllabus should be based on.
- Skilled level subjects.
- Application level subjects.
- Profession Understanding subjects.
- GMCS
- Practice level subjects.
The subjects should give only fixed knowledge and not variable knowledge which may be change frequently as case laws, sections, etc.
1. Skilled level subjects are.
- Advanced Accounting
- Auditing
- Costing
- Financial Management.
- Income tax and GST bare acts only.
2. Application lever subjects are
- Use of Software for skilled level subjects any one.
- Access and use of Information.
- Effective communication
3. Profession understanding subjects.
- CA Act,
- Code of Ethics
4. GMCS
- Management Techniques.
5. Practice level approach.
- Basics of practice of profession.
- Staring Techniques.
- Search new avenues.
- Management of Office.
- Development of profession.
With this we have following subjects only.
- Skilled level subjects Five.
- Application level subjects one
- Professional level subject one
- GMCS and practice level approach one
Only eight subjects and the same are useful to majority of the students after passing in their future. We can divide these subjects in IPCC and final where skilled level subjects will be studied at IPCC level and the rest at final level. The approach should be minimum subjects maximum required knowledge. Give what is basic required in life the rest will be acquired automatically as per the need. The need is base for any new knowledge or invention.
Hope the younger students will benefit with the change.
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