Common Eligibility Test by National Recruitment Agency approved to conduct online test for govt jobs twice a year : Jitendra singh

The Government gives a nod to the Setup of the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) Twice for a year

The Union Cabinet chaired by the PM, Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to set up in order to recruit eligible candidates for the Government and Public Sector Banks through Common Eligibility Test (CET).

Financial Outlay :

• The govt. has sanctioned a sum of Rs. 1517.57 crore for the National Recruitment Agencies (NRA). 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.
• It will also be proposed to evolve a robust mechanism for appointment including direct recruitment to tribunals and specialized bodies to attract best talents and professional experts.There is also proposal for strengthening the contractual employees.

Recruitment Reform- A major boon for the youngsters :

• At present, candidates seeking govt. jobs have to appear for separate examinations conducted  by multiple recruiting agencies for various posts, for which similar eligibility conditions have been prescribed.
• Candidate have to pay fee to multiple recruiting agencies and also have to travel long distances for appearing in various exams. 

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. https://t.co/FbCLAUrYmX

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 19, 2020

• These multiples recruitment examination are a burden on the candidates, as also on the respective recruitment agencies, involving avoidable/repetitive expenditure, law and order/security related issues and venue related problems.

• On an 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.

What is National Recruitment Agency (NRA) and Why is there a need ?

• A multi-agency body called the NRA will conduct a CET to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group-B and C (non-technical) posts.
• NRA will play a vital role in streamlining hiring and recruitment process.
  
• NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railway, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB and IBPS.
• It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing the state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of Central Government recruitment.
• Presently, Candidates have to appear for multiple examination conducted by multiple Examination conducted by multiple agencies at different points for similar post which places a burden on time, effort and cost of young people. 
• So, there is a need of a National Level of recruitment which will be an independent, professional specialized organisation that will be conducting common eligibility test for Non-Gazetted Post.

What is Common Eligibility Test (CET) ?

• In Budget 2020, a Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be conducted for the recruitment of Non-Gazetted Posts. For this, National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will be set up. Government Exams like Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) or Cell (RRC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts various pan India level. From now onward, same role of conducting examination across different states, cities and districts is proposed to be  held by NRA.
• NRA shall conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th Pass) and the matriculate (10th Pass) candidates for those non-technical posts to which recruitment is presently carried out by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
• 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 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.

A Great benefit to Woman :

Woman candidates especially from rural areas face constraints in appearing in multiple examinations as they have to arrange for transportation and places to stay in places that are far away. The location of test centers in every district would greatly benefit candidates from rural areas in general and women candidates in particular.

The Union #Cabinet by PM @narendramodi Ji today took a revolutionary decision for the youth of #NewIndia .

A 'National Recruitment Agency' for conducting a Common Eligibility Test has been approved. 

The historic move will benefit nearly 2.5 crore aspirants every year !! pic.twitter.com/44GDKFEcaX

— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) August 19, 2020

A Great benefit for candidates from rural areas :

Given the financial and other constraints, the candidates from rural background have to make a choice as to which examination they want to appear in. Under the NRA, the candidate by appearing in one examination will get an opportunity to compete for many posts. NRA will conduct the first-level/Tier-1 Examination which is the stepping stone for many other selections.   

CET score to be valid for three years, unlimited attempts :

• 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 score 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 candidates 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 examination every year.

Scores - Access to multiple recruitment agencies :

• Initially the scores would be used by the three major recruitment agencies. However, over a period of time it is expected that recruitment agencies in the Central Government would adopt the same. 
• Further, it would be open for other agencies in the public as well as private domain to adopt it if they so choose. Thus in the long run, the CET score could be shared with other recruiting agencies in the Central Government, State Government/Union Territories, Public Sector Undertaking and Private Sector. 
• This would help such Organisations in saving costs and time spent on recruitment.

Shortening the Recruitment cycle :

• A single eligibility test would significantly reduce the recruitment cycle. 
• Some departments have indicated their intention to do away with any second level test and go ahead with recruitment on the basis of CET scores, Physical Tests and Medical examination. 
• This would greatly reduce the cycle and benefit a large section of youth.