Digitization of Recruitment Tests Expedites E-Governance System

Every year central and state governments, boards, military and public sector companies conduct tests for recruiting staff to various positions. The entire calendar is filled with these exams and thousands of candidates participate in it. A huge amount of money is spent from public exchequers to conduct these examinations, besides efforts and time.

The advancement of technology has come handy to migrate the examination process and administration to digital and reduce the challenges they face. OMR sheets were the first such experiments, which was followed by computer-based tests. Now, this has evolved into remote proctoring enabled computer-adapted online tests. 

However, the entire examination bodies in the country have not adopted the digital transformation. Some bodies still follow the paper-pen tests to assess the candidates’ knowledge. Notwithstanding, the digitalisation pace is rapid, and in a couple of years, the entire recruitment examination system in the country will be digitized. 

On the other hands, the digitization of government services and operations is also rapid since the formulation of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in 2006. The Digital India and MyGov initiatives were outlined on the trails of NeGP’s success. With MyGov, the government is trying to promote citizens’ participation in governance and development. 

From Panchayats to Central Secretariat, e-governance was adopted in all the administrative units in the country. It is changing the characteristics of a government office. The red tape files are soon going to be a museum artefact. The e-services through web portals help both citizens and officers to reduce the efforts and thus, changing the public perspective towards governance and government.

Impact of digital recruitment tests on e-governance

The digitalisation of recruitment tests has a great influence on the e-governance transformation. This has a two-way advantage – a. producing digital-savvy employees, and b. transparent governance. Let us examine both in detail.

Digital-savvy employees

The digitization of governance requires skilled employees to operate the technology. The digitalization of the recruitment examinations aid to produce such digital-savvy employees. A candidate needs to have knowledge of computer and internet to attempt the exam. For this, she/he should learn the basics. Since we live in a digital world, most of the youth grow with technology. We can hardly find a person without a smartphone. Online examinations are convenient for these people.

Hence, the staff can apply their digital skill in work thereby ensuring quick and effortless service to the citizens, which is the key objective of the e-governance.

Towards a transparent governance

Moreover, unlike traditional examinations, online tests are conducted in a transparent manner. The test questions for the candidates are secure from leaks. Other malpractices like cheating, impersonation, and corruption during evaluations are almost nought in the online examination. Even in the offline examinations too, the use of just-in-question papers and digital evaluations will ensure the required safety and foolproof in the recruitment tests.

The staff recruited through these kinds of examinations are tend to be efficient, transparent and accountable in their office work, which would definitely enhance the e-governance.

Digital government!

As discussed above, the digital transformation in the recruitment tests is a gradual process across different examination bodies in India. The global coronavirus disease is transforming society by moving towards digital solutions to evade the infection. This also compelled to freeze recruitments across the sectors. 

The better solution for resuming the recruitment process is going online, and thereby continue filling the positions, which have been vacant for months. With the robust online solutions mentioned in this article, government recruitment will be much agile and transparent. This will further accelerate the governance and e-governance in the post-COVID era.

MeritTrac, India’s leading assessment and testing company, has been transforming the recruitment scenario in the country. Many government examination boards and PSUs are in tie-up with MeritTrac to modernize their recruitment tests. The solutions like online examinations, remote proctoring, just-in-time question paper and digital evaluations are capable to conduct the recruitment test in scale and securely.