It is official! The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal to establish a centralized government recruitment agency called National Recruitment Agency (NRA). Reportedly, the NRA will conduct a Common Eligibility Test which will replace the functions of Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). In a tweet from earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the “National Recruitment Agency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters”. The Common Eligibility Test will save candidate’s time as instead of multiple recruitment tests, the CET will be a centralized test for selection of eligible candidates to fill up Group B & C vacancies in various central government departments. The Department of Personnel & Training has published an information brochure of NRA and CET. Read on as we take you through a tour of the salient features of the NRA & the CET examination.
NRA will eliminate the need to appear in multiple exams
The National Recruitment Agency will eliminate the need to appear for multiple government recruitment exams. Candidates will now appear only in the CET exam for preliminary selection. From the candidate’s perspective, this will save the hassles to travel to different exam centres and expenses of applying individually for various government recruitment. The CET will serve as the Tier I exam of various recruitment carried out by the SSC, RRB and IBPS.
Separate CET exams for Graduate, Higher Secondary and Matriculate Level
CET will be conducted separately for Graduate level, Higher Secondary Level and Matriculate Level. The examination will shortlist candidates for Tier II & III exams of the respective recruitment agencies i.e. RRB, SSC and IBPS. Eligibility to appear in the respective Tier II & III level exams will be based on the score of CET. Candidates will be able to attempt the exam as many times as they want subject to the upper age limit. However, the CET score will remain valid for 03 years and the best score available will be treated as the valid CET score. Reserved categories will get relaxations on the upper age limit. CET will be conducted in multiple Indian languages based on standard curriculum & degree of difficulty.
CET will be held twice a year
The exam will be conducted twice a year. The entire process of candidate registration, admit card issue, display of marks, merit lists will be done online. The question paper will have MCQ type questions only. As a matter of fact, the CET exam is deemed to reduce the number of applicants to 5% of the total number of candidates who apply for specialized exams of SSC, RRB and IBPS.
NRA to conduct CET across 1000 districts
The CET exam will reduce the time taken in selection process and increase transparency. The best thing is that there will be at least one center in every district. Overall the exam will be conducted across 1000 districts to improve access to candidates living in rural areas, underprivileged and women.
CET score for recruitment by Central & State Government, PSUs and Private Sector
The NRA is to be established with the mission of the welfare of society. With the candidate-centric features, candidates will now be able to schedule tests and select exam centres as per their preference. The government aims to mobilize the rates of employment by introducing the centralized recruitment process. Thus CET scores will be valid across Central Government, State Government, UTs, PSUs and Private Sectors. Private & Public organizations conducting recruitment based on CET scores will be able to save on the costs of conducting exams.
