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The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) approved conducting the Staff Selection Commission Multitasking (non-technical) Staff (SSC MTS) examination 2022, and the Combined Higher Secondary Level Exam (CHSLE), 2022, in 13 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English. The announcement was made by Union Minister Jitendra Singh.
From now on, the question papers for these exams will be set in 13 regional languages. The exams will be available in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri (also Meiti), and Konkani. This is in addition to English and Hindi, which are already in place.
The government had constituted a committee to conduct a study and present its findings. The expert committee, in its report, made the following recommendation: "Study of posts of SSC, especially Group ‘C’ post, indicates that these posts are at cutting edge of Government-citizen interaction. India being a country where multiple languages are spoken, it would be in fitness of things to conduct 12th and 10th exams in multiple languages. To begin with, SSC can start with 14 languages as used by Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) / Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) in their exams and gradually increase to include all the languages mentioned in Schedule VIII of the Constitution."
The decision is expected to support millions of candidates and enable them to take exams in their mother tongues or regional languages. This may improve their chances of being selected.
The Centre accepted the recommendation of the expert committee and asked SSC to work to implement the changes advised in the report.
At the onset, the SSC has decided to conduct its MTS exam in 2022 and CHSL exam in 2022 in 15 languages (English, Hindi, and 13 regional languages).
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The Union Minister for State for Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, Jitendra Singh, said that the government is trying to include all of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
"Attempts are being made to eventually incorporate all of the languages listed in the Constitution's Eighth Schedule. He added that SSC continually works to ensure that all segments of the people have an equal opportunity to succeed in order to eliminate regional inequities and realise the Constitution's principles while also recognising and valuing our nation's linguistic variety", the minister said.
