The Union Cabinet has decided yesterday to set up a National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for conducting a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for various recruitments in the central government and based on the CET score a candidate can apply for a vacancy with the respective agency. As of now, more than 2.5 crore aspirants appear every year separately over 50 examinations for about 1.25 lakh vacancies in the central government. The scores of Common Eligibility Test will be valid for 3 years and there will be no bar on attempts.

“The #NationalRecruitmentAgency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters. Through the Common Eligibility Test, it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources. This will also be a big boost to transparency” tweeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Common Eligibility (CET) Test will be conducted for three levels: graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates for which the agency will have representatives from SSC, IBPS and RRB. Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialized Tiers (II, III, etc.) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies. The curriculum for CET would be common.

Initially, National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will organise a CET to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non -technical) posts, which are currently conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railways Recruitment Board (SSC) and Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). Later on, more exams may be brought under it. CET merit list will be made available by NRA to the states on a cost-sharing basis for undertaking recruitment to state government jobs, and in the future, to the private sector as well.

To conduct CET, the examination centres would be set up in every district of the country which helps poor candidates in reducing the expenditure on examination fees, travel, boarding, lodging and other things. The single examination is expected to reduce the financial burden on such candidates.

The CET will be conducted in multiple languages. According to Minister of DoPT Jitendra Singh, the exam will be conducted in 12 languages that are in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. As per the media reports, the government is hoping to conduct the first CET next year, possibly towards the end of the first quarter.

Source: With the Inputs of Indianexpress.com