Articleship
·
Introduction
A student who willing to become chartered
accountant of India, have to do articleship under the name of any practicing
chartered accountant of India for the period of three years immediate after
passing IPCC. Articleship means a
training program where student can learn practical aspect of the chartered
accountancy course. Student can learn what work to do? And how it gets done? After
becoming chartered accountant. A student also get stipend for the period of
articleship. Stipend means a specified amount of Rs. (Monthly) paid to the
student as per specified by ICAI [The institute of chartered accountant of
India]. Which differ with the capacity and willingness of the chartered accountants.
Articleship is great part of this course but near about 70-80 percentage
student of the said course called it “JAIL”. Surprising, why they call this? Let’s
try to find answer…..
·
In Brief:
I would like to elaborate it as
follows:
1]
Dedication and Maturity:
The articleship having prime requirement of
dedication and maturity of student. The article need to work hard and more. Every
article has willing to work hard and learn. It never seems that article doesn’t
have willing to learn. But somewhere they fail because of their age. Here the
role of principal starts. A student can join CA after 12th standard.
Normally 12th standard passed student at the age of 16 and after two
years (it is assumed that student cleared CPT and IPCC at 2nd
attempt) student will become eligible for articleship. At the age of 18 students
consider as a young or child also. Here, maturity level of the said students can’t
be expected more. They are at initial stage having blank slate. Who is very eager
to learn but at the same time student may want to go at amusement park, new
movie, hang out with friends etc. as per the view of maximum principals this is
wrong. Why? If they want to have some fun, they can, nobody have right to stop
them but not at the cost and in middle of articleship.
At the time of March (Income tax
Return season) and September (audit season) in most of the offices there is no
time to go home. No doubt food provided by principal but why everyone wants to do
work like that? Why everyone just want to work in emergency? The income tax act,
1961 of India gives enough time to file return and get your accounts audited. At
the end time as per requirement of principal either in that busy seasons or in
any day when pressure of work for principal get increased, articles ready to
works irrespective of their willingness and made major their social & personal
commitment cancelled, no government holidays and Sundays too. It is showing
dedication and maturity of articles, doesn’t it?
Another thing is that at the time
of that busy season where boy articles have to stay for late night work and
girls are free to go at specific time. I.e. safety of girls is required. Boys are
deemed to be useless. No safety is required. On the other hand, India is
talking about Girls=Boys. Is it justified? The same question is arising in the case of
outdoor audits.
At this young age student is there
to learn something from principal then guide them well. It may be possible they
made mistakes but teach them in positive manner without yelling on them. How to
speak? How to do work? The entire thing article learns from principal only. It’s
like famous Gujarati sentence “સંગ તેવો રંગ” and “કુવા માં હોઈ તો અવેળા માં આવે”.
These articles will be future representative
of this course and CA fraternity and that time people definitely going to ask
them that “who is your principal? / Where you did your articleship?” now it’s
depends on principals to make it worth.
2] Time of the articleship:
The ICAI gives very specific time
of the articleship but very few chartered accountants follows it. One can put
flexibility in timings of it but at the same time hours should not be increased
by principal. In life also if we want to grow, we need to make ourselves
punctual. “Time is money” “Respect time, time will respect you”. There should be professional behavior expected
from principal is that after completion of daily hours of articleship, it becomes
least concern for principal that what they will do now? Don’t know but may be
somewhere principals forget that articles are also human beings. They also surrounded
by society and personal needs.
The principal
is owner of the office so principal have no time limit, principal can come and
go whenever they wish but timing of articles should be fixed. If principal uses
to be punctual it will be moral check on article and article also comes at
sharp time. ICAI didn’t give any extra stipend facility on extra working hours.
Jokes a part, where the principals are paying more stipend then norms of ICAI,
it is your capacity and willingness it, never mean that articles are purchased
by you. Principal really need to develop system to get works done in timely
manner. It will be beneficial to both principal as well as article also.
3] Work Ethics:
It is my favorite subject Ethics.
Ethics means how the specific thing should be done in specific manner without
being harmful to other and to be useful for society and nation. It’s pretty sad
that ICAI having subject named Ethics in the whole course study curriculum but
it follows by very few chartered accountants in practical practices. The
articles should have least concern with that type of practices of principal and
keep it confidential. The principal have to take care that never involve
article in such type of practices irrespective of consent of articles. The trade
secrets of principal are only remains with them but make the article capable
enough to stand in practical work environment. “વિદ્યા
વહેંચવા થી
વધે છે”
(Knowledge sharing).
The work is Ethical
or not is depending upon the materiality of the said work and maturity and
common sense of the person. Ethics always teaches us that “what should be?” To teach basic about the environment and work
of office is responsibility of the principal not of the senior article or others.
For the flexibility one can arrange this type of structure but in case of
failure principal is solely responsible. I remind another sentence “મકાન
ની ચિંતા
મકાન માલિક
ને હોઈ
ભાડૂત ને
નઈ” (Concerns of the building to
be a landlord, not tenant).
4] Lack of transparency
It is the very important factor. Transparency between principal and student
must be there. Irrespective of the size of the problem one need to feel very
free to speak. In majority cases articles have no enough guts to speak in front
of their principal or they are afraid or they are worried about the reaction of
the principal and its future impact (because after all it’s all about future
and who want to destroy their own future?) that what they feel? Or what they
want? Or what are the problems they facing? In such a case where article couldn’t
speak, and if principal fails to understand the situation it will result into
unhealthy work environment. Where articles seems doing work but in actually they
aren’t. Only their bodies are working. Every work shall be completed with person’s
body as we as mind and heart. In this situation article is just in waiting of
completion of articleship or take transfer to get rid from it. Principal are
capable enough to make articleship enjoyable learning program, just they need
to try to understand articles and be transparent with them. Be supportive and
helpful.
These all are above mentioned points are interconnected
with each other. Any of these can’t be solely. These are the four pillars of
the articleship. It depends upon both principal (Contractor) and articles (sub-contractor)
to make it “JAIL OR BEAUTIFUL HOUSE”. The topic having endless discussion but
we should conclude it as follows.
·
Conclusion
After this discussion we can say that for better articleship,
article and principal must work together. The articleship is not only responsibility
of the student; it is duty of principal too. They must keep transparency
between them. Try to understand the problem and feelings of the student. Student
must give dedication and respect to their principal. The success of articleship
is depending upon the relation and mutual understanding of the principal and
article. The world have rule GIVE AND TAKE….only a single part make the things
hell. And it will result into failure of articleship and lost respect for
principal in the eyes of articles.
Thank You
Comments
Post a Comment