Rajya Sabha Report : Common Eligibility Test (CET) for Bank, SSC, Railway Exams

Dear Bankersdaily Aspirants,

There are speculations from the start that there might be a common entrance exam for all the existing exams which would eradicate the numerous tests which are conducted by various organisations for the posts lying vacant in various government sector organisations. Recently, an All India Exam was announced for the Medical Examinations and was announced that this common test will be followed in the forthcoming days.

A Report has been proposed in the Rajya Sabha were Common Eligibility Test (CET) was proposed for the existing set of exams like SSC , Banking and Railways and this also can be extended to the other state Exams if opted by the State Exam Commission’s.

So why this Common Eligibility Test is now being taken forwarded ? Is there any solid reason for the introduction of this CET (Common Eligibility Test) ? These are the reasons provided in the report submitted in the Rajya Sabha on 14th March, 2018.

• To bring transparency in various recruitment procedures
• To ease the difficulty faced by surging candidates after failure in the proper conduction of exam, to short out plethora of challenges with proliferated workload and less manpower.

Common Eligibility Test (CET) will be conducted for govt exams viz SSC, Banking, Railway and others exams from 2019 onward.

This CET will be conducted by SSC and SSC’s stature should be given autonomy at par with the UPSC (recommended by the committee under the chairmanship of Shri I.M.G Khan).

However, it is not yet officially revealed and will be treated as a supposition until it is proclaimed on the papers. 

Why CET?

Recently, the SSC had to recommend for a CBI enquiry into allegations pertaining to the conduct of CGL (Tier-II) Examination 2017. Such cancellation of exams is a complete waste of efforts and resources of both the aspirants and the Government and darkens the image of the Commission in the eyes of public. Aspirants lose their precious time and effort that they have put in preparing for those exams.

SSC Exam Cancelled in Past Five Years:

CET Selection Procedure / Exam Pattern:

This test is proposed to shortlist candidates for vacancies of Group ‘B’ (Non-Gazetted) and below level posts in the government jobs. Through this exercise, the entire recruitment system would be revamped and rationalized in two distinct stages, i.e. 

(i) Tier-I (Preliminary Examination)

A Common Screening Test subsuming the Preliminary Tier-I Examinations conducted by all recruiting agencies of the Government of India, viz. SSC, Railways, Banking, etc; and 

(ii) Tier-II (Mains Examination)

The main Examinations to be conducted independently by the concerned recruiting agencies

Note: The CET would be conducted at three levels: Matriculation level, Higher Secondary (10+2) level, Graduation Level Exams.

Advantages of Common Eligibility Test (CET)

The Common Eligibility Test (CET) proposed to be conducted from next year (2019) is an ambitious endeavour of the Commission and in the long term will benefit both the Government and the job aspirants.

There are plenty of advantages to the candidates and to the govt, that are mentioned below.

• CET will reduce the number of examinations conducted by various agencies of the government and will save significant amount of money spent on conducting these examinations by different recruiting agencies.
• In future, the CET scores may be further used by State Governments, if they so desire and even private companies may use it for short-listing candidates for employing them.
• The CET Score will be valid for 2 years. This CET score will help candidates to appear for Tier II examinations which would be conducted independently by the respective recruiting agencies like SSC, Bank, Railway and other exams.
• There may be a scope that the CET score would also be considered by State Government/ PSUs/ Private sectors for the recruitment of manpower.

Disadvantage of CET Examination:

1. The Committee notes that initially the Government will be conducting the CET only in English and Hindi medium. CET Exam will not be conducted in regional languages. This wold be the huge drawback for the candidates preparing for Public Service Commission Examinations in Regional Languages.

Note: In February 2019, CET – Graduation Level Exam will only be conducted. Other CET level exams will be conducted when commission acquires the necessary capability to conduct exam in the 8th schedule languages.

2. The government has estimated that, around 5 crores candidates might be registering for all of the above CET level exams. This would increase the competition level to the next level.

Note to the candidates:

As per the information provided by the Commission, the SSC has had to cancel Nine Recruitment examinations, fully or partially, in past five years.

It is yet to be revealed officially and will be treated as a supposition until it is proclaimed on the papers.