A substantial number of Public Service Commission (PSC) tests will now be conducted online with the help of the State government’s Department of Information Technology and C-DIT.
IT labs
Kerala Public Service Commission Chairman M.K. Sakeer said in a press conference here on Friday that the IT labs in technical institutions such as polytechnic colleges, ITIs and engineering colleges will be used to conduct PSC examinations.
“As of now, we have the facility for only 3,600 people to attend an examination online. With the IT labs added to the facility, we can cater to at least 40,000 candidates at the same time,” he said.
Number of applicants
Only a few examinations of the PSC such as LDC, LGS and police constable tests had around one lakh applicants, while the majority of the examinations had lesser number of candidates. Hence, all PSC examinations that had less than 40,000 applicants would be made online, said Mr. Sakeer.
Descriptive answering
The PSC was also contemplating the inclusion of descriptive answering in certain examinations that would be evaluated through online marking, he added.
Mr. Sakeer was speaking on the sidelines of opening of the e-office at the Regional Office and District Office of the PSC in Kozhikode on Friday. He said an e-office would make it completely paperless, more transparent and efficient, besides being confidential.
More responsibilities
Earlier in his address, Mr. Sakeer said the PSC in Kerala had more responsibilities than its counterparts in other States that conduct examinations for only Class I jobs. “Kerala PSC is handling the responsibilities of around 12 recruitment boards in other States. We have recently added selection of non-teaching staff in universities and recruitment of managers in district banks to the list,” he said.