SSC Exam, Registration may soon go online: Expert Group Report

No.39020/01/2013-Estt.(B)

Government of India

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

(Department of Personnel and Training)

North Block, New Delhi, 24 th December, 2014

The Department of Personnel and Training, on 13.02.2014, constituted an Expert Group under the Chairmanship of Shri I.M.G. Khan, former Member of Union Public Service Commission to review the existing examination system of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC).

2. The Expert Group submitted its report. Recommendations inter-alia include improvement in the examination system especially making the examination system on-line.

3. Staff Selection Commission (SSC) conducted a national level workshop on 05.12.2014 to deliberate on the recommendations given by the Expert Group. Working Groups made recommendations on the following:

i. National Screening Test & Technology related issues

ii. Awareness campaign

iii. Issues relating to Central Armed Force (CAPFs) Group

The recommendations made by the Working Groups are at Annexure .

4. Comments are invited on the recommendations contained in Annexure within 10 days. Comments may be sent to iavanthicanic.in or to Director, Establishment-II, Department of Personnel & Training, Room. No. 278-C, North Block, New Delhi.

sd/-

(G. Jayanthi)

Director

ANNEXURE

Secretary (Personnel) invited the stakeholder to go through the report and give long-term and short-term suggestions so that the implementation can start taking place early. The suggestions will be uploaded on the website. After an open house discussion on the recommendations made in the report of the Expert Group, three working groups on the following subjects were formed:

(i) Issues relating to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)

(ii) Awareness Campaign

(iii) National Screening Test (NST) & Technology.

The recommendations of the working Groups are as follows:

The Working Group on CAPF recommended the following:

They agreed with the recommendation of the Expert Group that SSC should not conduct examination for posts for which academic qualification requirement is less than 10+2 standard. CAPFs can conduct recruitment of Constable (GD) on their own if approved by MHA. In case MHA does not agree with the suggestion of the Expert Group, CAPFs recommend recruitment of 60% of the total vacancies (approximate normal areas in the districts which are neither border areas not naxalite/militancy affected areas) done by SSC on online exam basis. Recruitment regarding the rest of the vacancies (20% Border district and 20% LWE district vacancies) may be done by CAPF on application basis (offline) failing which by rally system.

The group also recommended that a nodal CAPF Recruitment Board may be set up headed by an Addl. DG

rank officer to deal with such recruitment. 

Reserve List may be maintained, if legally permissible and clear instructions may be issued by DOPT so that SSC as well as CAPF are clear about it and vacancies arising on account of people not joining or exercising an option lower than their merit can be filled up promptly.

Going by the large number of Court Cases being filed with regard to recruitment, CAPFs recommend that SSC categorises all Court Cases relating to CAPFs recruitment and shares this information with CAPFs so that they can take corrective action towards rectifying grey areas through clear instructions, SOPs and advertisements.

The group brought out difficulties being faced by delays in the recruitment process and requested that the above suggestions can be taken into account from the next examination cycle. The present cycle of recruitment has been delayed by 8 months already and is likely to get further delayed. The present process of recruitment may be expedited on priority by SSC.

Sub-Inspector Recruitment may continue to be done by SSC and may be done online now onwards. Duplication could be avoided by checks in software and mandatory entry in application form with respect to the matriculation certificate number and preferably Aadhar Card number.

The group also suggested that investment should be made in the use of technology to increase transparency and minimise human intervention instead of spending on facing court cases. The recruitment system may, inter alia, include the following:

1. Biometrics at every stage

2. Digital height weight chest measurement with webcam display.

3. RFID chip timing technology for PET.

4. Bar coded pure carbonless OMR in triplicate with two parts scanned separately to ensure secrecy of identity.

5. CCTV recording of all events.

6. Mobile jammers.

7. Online validation of data.

8. Online data received during application – database created and shared for use by CAPF during scrutiny/

PST/PET/Medical/Remedical with permission to update data based on verification of documents. Log should be maintained of edits done.

9. Uploading of marks, result, question papers, scanned answer papers – Part A and B, answer keys.

The group on awareness campaign suggested the following measures to enhance awareness.

Exam Schedules should be notified well in advance for the entire year and should be given wide publicity.

Advertisement about SSC in leading/local Newspapers, say in full page [Print Media lone month before the major exams.

Short Advertisement about forthcoming major recruitments indicating gross emoluments, place of posting, promotional avenue, specific vacancies in leading/ local Newspapers

Publicity through All India Radio/ Doordarshan/FM Channels/ Scrolls in Private Channels about recruitments, fairness etc. by means of participation in talks, interviews and by advertisements.

Putting Hoardings about SSC wherever feasible

Workshops on Career Counselling in Universities/ Colleges/ Schools and participation in placement drives of

universities for awareness

Distribution of pamphlets, posters to candidates through colleges/ schools;

Availability of Standardized Application Form through Post Offices

Participation in Exhibitions/ Education Fairs (stalls/kiosks)

Publicity in Social Media like Facebook, Twitter etc.

Zonal recruitment for certain Examinations e.g. CHSL etc.

User Departments to be advised to post candidates as per option to the extent feasible

Organising roadshows at regular intervals.

The group on National Screening Test & Technology made the following recommendations:

1. On-line registration – Should be made compulsory everywhere in all areas except North East where the ICT infrastructure is not extensively available. So, an additional one year may be given to NE Region before going completely on-line. This may be in line with UPSC’s action taken some years ago on this issue.

1.1. This registration should be one time for life and can be updatable such as educational qualification, experience, etc. with valid credentials (Basic details, e.g. name, DOB, Aadhaar number, etc. would not be

updatable).

1.2. Application would be web based and mobile app will enable candidates to apply using mobile devices also.

2. Registration for specific exam including payment of fees Recommended

3. The expert group said that National Screening test may not be feasible; however it should be debated more before accepting this opinion.

4. Online Exam

4.1. It should be done

4.2. The assessment of infrastructure should be made and needs upgradation as expeditiously as possible.

4.3. Whether private agencies, universities, Engineering colleges, etc. can be used for setting-up of physical

exam infrastructure.

4.4. Control over the examination technology environment such as data centres, servers, work stations should be of SSC / government.

4.5. On-line exams should be introduced without any further delay.

4.6. The capability of supervision of examinations should be enhanced.

4.7. Issues (Question Bank):

4.7.1. Recommendations of the expert committees agreed.

4.7.2. Digitized and increased numbers of questions by conducting more workshops on question banks. This

activity should be taken on priority.

4.7.3. Digitised format will enable experts to update periodically

4.7 4. Control of SSC on the question paper and relative difficulty level

4.7.5. Graded difficulty for candidates

4.7.6. Jumbled questions and answers to be generated

4.7.7. Randomization of question papers before sending to each exam centre

4.8. Marking Scheme

4.8.1. Negative marking mandatory – accepted

4.8.2. Normalization of score should be done, however the legal dimensions should be taken care of by

ensuring that the entire cycle of examinations mimic a single exam.

4.8.3. Answer keys may be uploaded along with the question paper.

4.9. Malpractices & Integrity of exams

4.9.1. Biometric authentication should be encouraged

4.9.2. Impersonation should be prevented using videography, screen captures, biometric data, etc.

4.10. Benefits of adopting Technology solutions – Accepted

4.11. Capacity Building of SSC – Required

4.11.1. Technology Orientation

4.11.2. Skilled resources

4.11.3. Capacity Building

4.11.4. Building of Programme Management Unit

(IT Managers, Domain Experts, Programmers and Support Staff)

Source: http://documents.doptcirculars.nic.in/D2/D02est/Expert-Committee-SSC.pdf