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Approval For National Recruitment Agency to conduct a Common Eligibility Test For All Govt Jobs.
The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal to set up a National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for conducting the proposed Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to all non-gazetted posts in the Central government and public sector banks.
Around 2.5 crore aspirants, who take separate, multiple examinations conducted by different recruiting agencies for selection to around 1.25 lakh government jobs advertised each year, will need to appear for a single, online CET with the test scores remaining valid for three years.
What is the Common Eligibility Test?
There will be a single entrance examination for all non-gazetted posts — Group B and C posts. Candidates who qualify this Common Entrance Test (CET) can apply to any recruitment agencies for a higher level of examination.
The score will be valid for three years during which candidates can apply for jobs in different sectors depending upon his/her aptitude and preferences.
At present, candidates seeking government jobs have to appear for separate examinations conducted by multiple recruiting agencies for various posts, for which similar eligibility conditions have been prescribed.
Advantages of CET:
Candidates have to pay a fee to multiple recruiting agencies and also have to travel long distances for appearing in various exams. These multiple recruitment examinations are a burden on the candidates.
There is also on the respective recruitment agencies, involving avoidable/repetitive expenditure, law and order/security related issues, and venue related problems.
On average, 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations. A common eligibility Test would enable these candidates to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination. This would indeed be a boon to all the candidates.
CET Validity Period:
The CET score of the candidate shall be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of the result.
There shall be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET subject to the upper age limit.
Relaxation in the upper age limit shall be given to candidates of SC/ST/OBC and other categories as per the extant policy of the Government.
This would go a long way in mitigating the hardship of candidates who spend a considerable amount of time, money, and effort preparing and giving these examinations every year.
The NRA will have representatives from the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing state-of-the-art technology and best practices in the field of Central government recruitment, an official statement said.
This, he said, would help them save costs and time spent on recruitment.
The government has sanctioned a sum of ₹ 1,517.57 crores for setting up the National Recruitment Agency (NRA), which will be headquartered in Delhi.
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