The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has decided to conduct its flagship Combined Graduate Level Examination (CGLE) online to check malpractices and make the test more transparent.
Besides, the Commission has also changed the pattern of the examination and included descriptive portion (essay writing) in it for the first time.
Hundreds of students are selected through the CGLE every year for various mid-level central government jobs, including as Assistant in Intelligence Bureau and Inspector in Income Tax.
"It has been decided to conduct the CGLE through online mode rather than Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) based. It is a historic decision that will bring in more transparency in the examination process," SSC Chairman Ashim Khurana said.
He said a video walk through on the SSC's website has been put up to help the aspirants understand the new pattern.
About 38 lakh aspirants, who had already applied for CGLE 2016, will have to take the test under the new pattern which will be conducted in the next two months.
"A notice mentioning the changes in pattern of examination has been issued. The new online system will effectively put a check on any incident of leakage of exam paper or tampering with the examination process," Khurana told PTI.
He said the Commission is getting positive feedback from the students across the country on the recently announced changes.
The decision to hold the CGLE online was endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also, senior officials in Personnel Ministry said.
The SSC is one of the largest recruiting agencies in the country mandated to conduct eight exams. It will fill about 89,000 government posts this year alone from among about two crore applicants.
The Commission's flagship CGLE is for filling vacancies in 30 different services in the central government.
There will be no fresh application for CGLE 2016 and those who have already applied will have to take the exam on computer rather than OMR mode, which was prone to malpractices by tech-savvy syndicates, the officials said.
The computer-based examination will ensure greater confidentiality and faster processing of results, they said.
The SSC has for the first time been authorised to make recruitment for gazetted posts of Indian Audit and Accounts department.
As per the changed pattern, the CGLE will now be conducted in three tiers instead of two.
In phase I, there will be 100 questions as against 200 earlier. The aspirants will get 1.15 hours instead of two. There will be no change in tier II and two papers of 200 marks each would continue. Those who qualify in both tier I and II, will have to take tier III exam of 100 marks which will be descriptive in nature, the officials said.
They said the descriptive portion will help in checking candidates' comprehension and analytical skills.
