Government Job Recruitment Exams To Be Held In 15 Languages: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Centre announced that they have decided to hold a government job recruitment test, conducted by the SSC, in 15 languages so that the youth of the country do not miss any opportunity. Union Minister Jitendra Singh said this historic decision will give impetus to the participation of local youth and encourage regional languages, he said, addressing the 14th Hindi Consultative Committee meeting of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

"It has recently been decided to conduct the government job test in 15 Indian languages so that the language barrier does not let any youth of the country miss the job opportunity," said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.

In addition to Hindi and English, the question paper will be set in 13 regional languages i.e. Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri (also Meiti) and Konkani, he said, referring to the recruitment test conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC).

"Notable progress has been made in the last more than nine years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote the Indian regional languages besides the official language Hindi," the minister said.

The decision will result in lakhs of aspirants taking part in the examination in their mother tongue/regional language and improve their selection prospects, he said.

Singh said there had been persistent demands from different states to hold SSC exams in languages other than English and Hindi.

"The government appointed an expert committee to look at this aspect too amongst other things (review of scheme and syllabus of examinations conducted by the Commission). Though the policy was initiated with the Official Language Rules, 1976, significant progress has been made only in the last five-six years," he added.

"The JEE, NEET and UGC exams are also being conducted in 12 of our languages," he said.

In UPSC, there is still a dearth of higher studies subject books but efforts are on in coordination with the Education Ministry to promote specialised books in Indian languages, the minister said.

(With agency inputs)