A World Commerce Education Day was celebrated recently under the auspices of the Career Guidance Section of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with the objective of pressing home the importance of commerce education in day-to-day life. The celebrations, organized in association with International Indian School Jeddah (IISJ) on Nov. 10, highlighted efforts and achievements in the field of commerce for human welfare and gave a platform to discuss all issues related to commerce education and implement innovative strategies for its development. It was also an occasion to showcase the talents of commerce students in the country and popularize commerce education. The Day was marked across all Indian states and the institute's 28 chapters abroad to promote and popularize commerce education and career counseling program among the student community. A presentation was given by Abdulrehman A. Merchant of the Jeddah Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to the students of IISJ, Delhi Public School (DPS) and Al-Wurood School. He explained to the gathering the significance of the Day, which commemorated the publication of the book titled Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita (Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion) in Venice on Nov. 10, 1494. This was the first book that summarized the mathematical knowledge of those days. One of the tractatus of the Summa, entitled "Particularis de computis et scripturis" (About accounts and other writings), provides a detailed description of Venetian bookkeeping. This was the first treatise on double entry bookkeeping "Method of Venice" and was the basic source of some well-known works on mercantile accounting. The book earned its author, Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli, the title "The Father of Modern Accounting and Bookkeeping." The work covered most accounting we know today. De Pacioli described the use of journals and ledgers and said a person should not go to sleep at night until the debits equal the credits. His ledger had accounts for assets (including receivables and inventories), liabilities, capital, income and expenses — the account categories that are reported even today in an organization's balance sheet and income statement. He demonstrated year-end closing entries and proposed that a trial balance be used to prove a balanced ledger. The touches on a wide range of topics from accounting ethics to cost accounting. Merchant gave a detailed presentation of Chartered Accountancy course of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India highlighting different routes that the students can take – CPT Route and Direct Entry Route – to accomplish and become a full-fledged Chartered Accountant. He enlightened the students on different positions a Chartered Accountant can occupy in the corporate world today, namely Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Analyst, Chief Finance Manager, Chief Internal Auditor, Risk Manager, Compliance Manager, Auditing and Tax Consultant, Management Consultant and others. He advised prospective students not get carried away by the low percentage results in CA curriculum but to develop a positive attitude and see it as a challenge like other professional courses. He briefed the audience on the activities of Jeddah Chapter, which has a strength of 150 plus members who meet 7 to 8 times annually by conducting technical sessions on topics of interest besides involving themselves in social events for Indian community as well as the students of Indian schools. The chapters also exist in Riyadh and Dammam. He briefed the gathering on the upcoming Commerce Talent Search titled "ICAI Commerce Wizard 2016", which is a diagnostic test that measures the concept understanding ability of a student unlike regular tests that try to find out how much a child knows. It is being organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and consists of Level 1 and 2 Test for Class IX, X, XI & XII on Dec. 11 and Jan. 8 respectively. The competition carries attractive prizes for the participants. Details of the talent hunt is available at icaicommercewizard.com.
