The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the creation of a National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for conducting a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for various government jobs.
All you need to know about National Recruitment Agency
Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet had taken the “historic” decision at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to benefit crores of young people who applied for jobs every year. About 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates applied for the 1.25 lakh Group B and C jobs advertised by three agencies every year, with separate schedules and fees.
3 agencies under NRA for now
Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) C. Chandramouli said that to begin with, three of the over 20 Central government recruitment agencies would be brought under the NRA.
The preliminary test for the Railway Recruitment Board, the Staff Selection Commission and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection would be conducted by the NRA, after which the candidates can use the scores to apply to the individual agencies for the next round. Gradually all Central government recruitment agencies would be brought under the NRA, Mr. Chandramouli said.
Common test for railway, bank, Central government jobs from 2021
“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”, a government statement said.
Online exam
The exam would be held online and centres would be set up in every district to increase access for candidates, it stated.
“The CET score of the candidate shall be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of the result. The best of the valid scores shall be deemed to be the current score of the candidate. 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”, it said.
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes candidates would be given a relaxation in the age limit as per the government’s policy, it noted.
The government sanctioned ₹1,517.57 crore for the NRA for a period of three years.
The CET would be held separately for three levels - graduate, 12th pass and 10th pass - for the non-technical posts of the three agencies.
“Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III etc) of examinations, which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies. The curriculum for this test would be common as would be the standard”, the statement said.
In 12 languages
Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension Jitendra Singh said the exam would be conducted in 12 languages to begin with and the attempt would be to expand it further to all languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. He added that though the test score would be used for Central government recruitment for now, it could be used by State governments and even the private sector in the future.
“Candidates would have the facility of registering on a common portal and give a choice of centres. Based on availability, they would be allotted centres. The ultimate aim is to reach a stage wherein candidates can schedule their own tests at centres of their choice”, the statement said.
