Common Eligibility Test For SSC,RRB And IBPS Exam

The National Recruitment Agency will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for the competitive examinations . The NRA will work as a preliminary single-window agency to shortlist qualifying candidates from the bulk of applicants and forward the list to SSC, IBPS, etc, to hold the mains.

In a move to streamline the recruitment process for non-gazetted posts in the central government and public sector banks, the Union Cabinet approved setting up the National Recruitment Agency on 19th August.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "The National Recruitment Agency 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."

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said ,"It will lead to ease of selection, ease of job placement and ease of living, especially for those sections of society that are considered disadvantaged," .

The proposal for the National Recruitment Agency was first introduced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget 2020. The new agency will be an "independent, professional, specialist organisation and will conduct an exam, which would be known as the Common Eligibility Test, for selection to government jobs," the Union Budget mentioned.

The government sanctioned ₹1,517.57 crore for NRA, Union cabinet said in a statement, adding that the expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years. "Apart from setting up the NRA, costs will be incurred for setting up examination infrastructure in the 117 aspirational districts.

Silent Features Common Eligibility Test(CET)-

The National Recruitment Agency agency will conduct entrance tests for Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).

The hiring of Group-B (non-gazetted), Group-C (non-technical) and clerical posts in the government along with various equivalent recruitment in public sector banks will be done through CET. The NRA will conduct preliminary examinations for all these recruitment.

The multi-agency body will conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates.

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 examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies.

Around 2.5 crore aspirants sit for various examinations for government jobs or banking jobs every year.The National Recruitment Agency will conduct the Tier-1 examination for these three agencies online. Examination centres will be set up in each district.

The score of CET will be valid for three years. 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.

The curriculum for this test would be common as would be the standard. This would greatly ease the burden of candidates who are at present required to prepare for each of the examinations separately as per different curriculum.

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 CET would be available in a number of languages. This would greatly facilitate people from different parts of the country to take the exam and have an equal opportunity of being selected.

Candidates no longer need to spend money to fill up different applications for different jobs. The cost of travelling for different examinations will also be saved.

The NRA will set up examination centres in every district of the country to help youths, especially women, from rural and far flung areas of the country, as they won't be required to travel to another place to take recruitment tests.

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 or twice in a year.