Common Eligibility Test will be conducted in 12 languages

The Centre has been planning to conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) not only in Hindi and English, but also in 10 other Indian languages, providing equal opportunity to the youth seeking jobs in banking, Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Railways.

There is also a plan to gradually expand the CET's scope to other languages of the 8th schedule, officials privy to the developments in the Ministry of Personnel said.

There are 22 languages in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. As per the information, the CET exams will initially begin with 12 languages and then include other languages as part of its examination process.

States and Union Territories (UTs) can avail the Common Eligibility Test to be conducted by the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for job selection, the decision for which was passed at the Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

There is also a plan that the CET score would be shared with the recruiting agencies with the state governments and UT administrations as well as Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and also later on with the private sector. The Ministry of Personnel also confirmed it in a statement on Saturday.

Citing Union Minister Jitendra Singh's statement on the issue, the Ministry said "CET would actually help the recruiting agencies including the state and UT governments to save the cost and time spent on recruitment, while at the same time also be convenient and cost-effective for the young job aspirants."


As part of government's plan, an arrangement in the form of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) could be put in place for using the CET score by these agencies and these organisations. Eventually, the Ministry said that CET could prove a win-win arrangement both for the employer as well as employee.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and Minister Jitendra Singh are in touch with several state governments and UTs that have expressed their inclination to be a part of the sharing arrangement of CET score.

It is learnt that most of the Chief Ministers are also quite enthusiastic and in favour of adopting this reform, which the Central government calls a revolutionary decision as this is aimed at proving to be a major reform to bring about ease of living for struggling youth and job aspirants.


The government has planned to give relaxation in the upper age limit to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class (OBC) and other category candidates as per existing government policy who will be appearing for the exams. "The CET will have no correlation or incompatibility with the rules of recruitment like domicile followed by certain states or UTs," the Minister has added.

To streamline the recruitment process in India, the Union Cabinet approved setting up of the National Recruitment Agency. The new agency will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to select candidates for non-gazetted posts in the central government and public sector banks.

The agency will conduct a common entrance test for SSC and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).

For forming the National Recruitment Agency, the central government sanctioned Rs 1,517.57 crore. The aim of CET is to eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources. - IANS