New Delhi, March 15, 2021: The Common Eligibility Test (CET) to select candidates for non-gazetted posts in the central government and public sector banks, will be held around September, Union minister Jitendra Singh said. The central government earlier formed National Recruitment Agency to streamline the recruitment process in India. There will be a common entrance test for Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Railway Recruitment Board (RRB). “As a major boon for the youth, particularly the government job aspirants, a Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be conducted across the country from this year to screen and shortlist candidates for recruitment to central government jobs,” said Singh.
The first such test is likely to be held in the later part of 2021, probably around September or so, Singh said, according to PTI. NRA will be an independent, autonomous organisation responsible for shortlisting candidates, he added.
According to the reports published in Livemint.com the existing central recruiting agencies like SSC, RRBs and IBPS would continue to conduct specific recruitment as per their requirements and the CET will only be the test for preliminary screening of candidates for the jobs, he clarified. Based on the score obtained in CET conducted by NRA, candidates may appear in domain specific exam/tests to be conducted by respective recruitment agencies,” the minister added.
1) The National Recruitment Agency will conduct the preliminary examinations for Group-B (non-gazetted), Group-C (non-technical) and clerical posts in the government along with various equivalent recruitment in public sector banks.
2) There will be a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates.
3) 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.
4) “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,” the central government said in a statement.
5) 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.
6) 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, the Union Cabinet said in a statement.
7) 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.
8) One of the important objectives of this historic reform, said Singh, is to provide a level playing field to every candidate so that none of the job aspirant is at a disadvantage and has an equal opportunity, regardless of his or her background or socio-economic status.
