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The Staff Selection Commission is facing a peculiar problem. It wants to conduct examinations online but personal computers (PCs) in large numbers are not available across the country.
The commission wants nearly 10 lakh PCs on a single day with secured local area network and Internet connection but only two lakh PCs are available, said Mr N.K. Raghupathy, Chairman, SSC. The commission conducts examinations to recruit Central Government employees in Group B non-gazetted posts and Group C non-technical posts.
Limited PCs
“Companies like Tata Consultancy Services, MeritTrac and Sify commit only up to two lakh PCs on a single day. How could we conduct examinations for which we receive 17 lakh to 20 lakh applications?” he told Business Line .
“There is no hesitation in moving online. We have told the companies interested to work with us to pool in all their resources together and have at least 10 lakh PCs made available with reliable connectivity so that we can immediately try it out with a major examination,” he said.
Every year, the SSC conducts 12 major examinations. During 2010-11, it handled 68 lakh applications, an increase of two-and-a-half times over the previous year's figure of 19 lakh. It selected 23,500 candidates last year, he said.
Online exam deferred
The commission on July 15 was to hold an online examination in Delhi for stenographers but this has been deferred due to shortage of PCs. “Even 500 PCs are not available in Delhi while we are talking about 10 lakh across the country. In fact, we wanted to call candidates to Delhi from all over the country at our expense. We are comfortable conducting the exams in a distributed environment but in a single batch and at the same time,” he said.
Mr Raghupathy said that the commission continues to hold examinations across the country on a single day and brings out the results in less than two months. By moving online and with shortage of PCs, the commission will be forced to hold the exams in batches over one or two months. “This we do not want to do,” he said.
“With all the constraints, we need to keep trying and move online in the future,” he said.
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