Soon, aspirants seeking middle and junior level jobs in Central government may have to appear for just one exam rather than various examinations conducted by multiple agencies.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has come out with the proposal for a Common Eligibility Test (CET) under the new specialised agency for posts for which similar eligibility criteria have been prescribed.
At present, the CET is proposed for certain Group B Gazetted, Group B non-Gazetted and Group C posts.
While the tests will be conducted by the Central government-appointed specialised agency conducting the proposed CET, scores of candidates can be obtained by state governments or private sector for appointment in their organisations by entering into an arrangement with the specialised agency.
Latest government data shows that there are 6,83,823 vacant posts in the Central government of which 5,74,289 are in Group C, 89,638 in Group B and 19,896 in Group A category, as on March 1, 2018.
Once in place, the ministry believes, this would help the candidates the agony of appearing in multiple examinations conducted by multiple agencies besides saving money on the count of application fees and travelling cost to appear in these tests.
This could also help to improve the access to rural candidates by setting up at least one test centre in every district as well as reduce the time taken in the selection process.
According to the proposal put out in public domain for consultations, there will be a common registration of candidates through an online portal.
At first, separate CETs will be conducted for non-technical posts for which recruitment is currently carried through the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
The scores will be made available to the candidate as well as to the individual recruitment agency and it will be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of result.
Each candidate will be given two additional chances to improve his score and the best of all available scores shall be deemed to be the current score of the candidate.
Final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised examinations to be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies, it said.