National Recruitment Agency will be established by the end of 2022 which will conduct a Common Eligibility Test for recruitment. Union Minister of State for Personnel and Public Grievances Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday said that National Recruitment Agency will be established in the country in 2022 which will conduct a Common Eligibility Test for recruitment. Jitendra Singh spoke at the Regional Conference on Strengthening the State Institutions of Public Administration in Lucknow, Dr. Singh said that the Central Government is trying to provide at least one centre of examination in every major district so that aspirants especially girls do not have to travel far for competitive examinations. He said that face of bureaucracy is changing and the change of pace is now increasing and joint pooling of resources and synergism is no longer an option, but it’s a compulsion.
NRA Full Form
What is the NRA full form? NRA stands for National Recruitment Agency. In the latest announcement by the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, it has given the approval to NRA for conducting the CET. NRA will have representatives from various government departments namely the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS. National Recruitment Agency India will act as a boon to the job-seeking aspirants throughout the country providing easy access to the rural youth, women and candidates with disabilities.
What is the National Recruitment Agency?
A multi-agency body known as the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will be constructed by the government of India to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to various Group B & C posts. NRA exam will be known as CET to be conducted for screening eligible candidates for the next level of examination required to fill vacancies in non-gazetted government posts. NRA would be a specialist body of the government responsible for bringing state-of-the-art technology and best methods to the field of Central Government recruitment.
The NRA will replace the first level of tests for Group B and C posts with a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen or shortlist the candidates for the mains examination. The scores of CET will be valid for a period of 3 years. On average, over 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations every year.
Cabinet Approves Common Eligibility Test (CET) by NRA; Check Guidelines
National Recruitment Agency Functions
The functions of the NRA exam or National recruitment agency will include:
- To conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen candidates at the first level for SSC, RRBs and IBPS
- Ease of Access to Rural youth, women and disadvantaged candidates
- Remove the Multiplicity of Exams by conducting a common CET for all exams
- It will focus on access to Test Centres in the Aspirational Districts and motivate the rural candidates living in the far-flung areas to take the examination.
- Candidates would have the facility of registering on a common portal and give the desired choice of Centres.
- A single common eligibility test would reduce the recruitment cycle process.
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List of Govt Jobs Exam Details will be under National Recruitment Agency CET
NRA Exam called CET will act as a preliminary exam for all non gazetted group B and C posts particularly SSC, IBPS & RRB. Here are the NRA CET Exam details:
- The CET score of the candidate will be valid for a period of 3 years from the date of declaration of the result.
- A standard curriculum for the CET with a standard degree of difficulty level will be followed.
- The exam will be held in multiple Indian languages.
- A separate CET by NRA each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass).
- CET score will act as a preliminary score and the final selection will be made through separate Tier 2/Tier 3 examinations to be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies.
- No restriction on the number of attempts by the candidate.
- Candidates can schedule tests and choose the exam centre of their choice
- CET scores can be shared with the Central Govt, State govt, UTs, PSUs and private sector
- CET will be conducted at over 1000 centers and every district will have at least one exam center.
CET by NRA- A Major Boon For the Rural and Economically weaker candidates
Presently, 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations for Group B and C posts every year. Rural and economically weaker candidates don’t appear for all exams due to lack of money. In order to cope with the situation, the CET will make sure candidates have to appear for only one exam. It will lessen the burden on the candidates with an economically weaker background.
A common eligibility Test would also enable the youth to appear once and apply to any or all of the recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination. This would indeed be a boon to all the candidates. Previously, candidates have to appear for the prelims exam again and again even if they qualify it every time.
Access to Examination Centres
Special focus will be given on creating examination infrastructure in the 117 Aspirational Districts to make sure candidates can easily access the exam centres. To make sure students from the remote areas can appear for the exams without any hassle, the government will make sure that each district has an exam centre. The benefits of this move in terms of cost, effort, safety and much more would be immense.
Benefits to the women candidates
Women candidates, especially from rural areas, face constraints while appearing in multiple examinations as they have to arrange for transportation, places to stay etc. The location of test centres or exam centres in every District will greatly benefit women candidates as it will save time and they won’t have to travel to far off places.
Standardized Testing
NRA will conduct a separate CET for all the 3 levels namely graduate, higher secondary (12th), and secondary (10th) pass. Candidates can appear for the exams according to their qualifications. Based on the screening of the candidates according to their CET score, candidates will be shortlisted for the next level of examination. The CET score will be valid for a period of 3 years. Candidates can opt for higher-level exams for Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) as per their choice.
Shortening the recruitment cycle
NRA-CET will definitely help in the shortening of the recruitment cycle as the preliminary exams for all non-gazetted posts will be common. Appearing for multiple exams from stage 1 results in wasting of time. It takes more than a year to complete the recruitment process for a single post. CET will save the time of students and will fasten the recruitment process.
