aspiring black CA success rate soars

Accountancy SA, Aug 2004

The number of black African passing Part 1 of the Qualifying Examination (QE) towards becoming a chartered accountant has improved by a dramatic 102% when compared to the 2003 number.

"This is wonderful news," said Ignatius Sehoole, SAICA's Executive President. "SAICA's drive for transformation in the profession is clearly starting to bear fruit. Never before have as many as 225 black African candidates passed Part 1 of the QE."

At the same time, he acknowledged that much still remained to be achieved. "The 29,1% pass rate among black African candidates, although 45% higher than last year's figure, is still unacceptably low. But I am encouraged by the fact that many of SAICA's transformation initiatives have yet to be reflected in the examination results."

The overall pass rate in this year's OE is 46,2%. The top qualifier is Lisa Vidulich of Johannesburg, followed by Clare Robinson of Cape Town. Third was Durban's Muhammed Moosa.

The pass rate of candidates writing the examination for the first time was 56,3% with the pass rate among first time candidates who completed their studies on a full-time basis at residential universities being 81,4%. The part-time study candidates' pass rate at distance learning universities was significantly lower. This contributed directly to the overall low pass rate.

"The trend of low pass rates of part-time students at distance learning universities is significantly affecting the profession's ability to provide the SA economy with enough prospective CAs(SA)," said Ignatius. He maintained that it was also restricting the profession's transformation efforts in the short term.

The pass rate among black Africans, coloureds and Indians is 32,9% - a statistic that Ignatius believes would be significantly improved if the standard of accounting education at the distance learning universities at which many studied were enhanced. He called on these institutions to review their current processes of preparation of future professionals. He is determined to engage with the Minister of Education as well as the universities involved to co-operate on how the distance learning education processes can be enhanced to improve the preparation of professional accountants.

Ignatius noted that SAICA launched its Thuthuka Bursary Fund in May to source funding from the profession, as well as from commerce and industry, in order to facilitate the full-time study of more prospective black African CAs(SA) because the distance learning failure rate was not facilitating the transformation of the profession.

Even so, the black African pass rate is better than at any time in the past, a phenomenon ascribed to the following factors:

* Extended preparation time due to a refresher course run by the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of SA (ABASA), the University of Cape Town and RAU;

* The past year has witnessed many more black Africans studying full-time at residential universities;

* SAICA through its transformation initiatives provided extra, intensive classes to those UNISA students studying part-time; and

* Through the SETA Fasset, some 70 students converted from part-time to full-time study.

"I am very encouraged that 44,4% of the total candidates who wrote Part 1 are female, including those who did so well to finish among the top ten," said Ignatius. "I congratulate Liza Vidulich on achieving the top position and further commend the top three candidates for achieving a pass with honours."

Joe Lesejane, SAICA's senior executive education and training, emphasised that the passing of Part 1 of the QE is not the final requirement before qualifying as a chartered accountant. The successful candidates still have to pass Part 2 of the QE and will be eligible to become members of SAICA, once they have completed their training contract.