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Tough fight for recruitment: 10.69 lakh contenders for 411 posts of review officer, assistant review officer in Uttar Pradesh
The large number of applicants means that more than 2600 candidates are in the fray for each post on offer, said UPPSC officials.
At a time when candidates claim that very few recruitments for government jobs are taking place in the state, a total of 10,69,725 aspirants have applied for 441 vacant posts for which the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) recently issued advertisements.
The large number of applicants means that more than 2600 candidates are in the fray for each post on offer, said UPPSC officials.
The vacancies include 334 of review officer (RO) and 77 assistant review officer (ARO).
This is the first time that UPPSC has received such a large number of applications for RO/ARO recruitment, they added.
Officials maintained that the main reason for the large number of applicants this time is that merely graduation was the specified qualification for the recruitment.
UPPSC has released the recruitment of RO/ARO this year for the first time after 2021. Online applications were invited from October 9 to November 9, but in view of the difficulty in the mandatory one-time registration, the last date of application was extended to November 24.
With not many recruitments for government jobs, including for assistant teachers, taking place in the state for the past sometime, a large number of unemployed graduates decided to try their luck, the officials added.
As per the UPPSC advertisements for the recruitment issued on October 9, out of 334 posts of review officer on offer, 322 are in the Uttar Pradesh Secretariat, nine in the UP Public Service Commission and three posts in UP Board of Revenue.
As for the ARO posts, the applicants are required to have O-level certificate of the Department of Electronics and Accreditation of Computer Courses (DOEACC), or its equivalent qualification, as well as a minimum speed of 25 words per minute in Hindi typing. As a result, there have been fewer applications for the ARO posts.
The written examination of RO/ARO recruitment is expected to be held in February 2024 after the written test for the recruitment of additional private secretary (APS) proposed on January 7.
A total of 11,07,212 candidates had registered for RO/ARO recruitment-2023 but only 10,69,919 deposited the fees. Just 10,69,725 candidates finally submitted the forms completing the application process.
On the basis of preliminary examination, candidates numbering 15 times the vacancies will be declared successful for appearing in the main examination. The preliminary examination will be conducted in 40 districts, including Prayagraj, Lucknow, Agra, Ayodhya, Azamgarh, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Greater Noida (Gautam Buddha Nagar).
Since implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) in July 2011 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 separate recruitments of teachers were held for government-run schools up to Class 8 during a seven-year period. There has been no recruitment in the past five years.
On July 25, 2017, after the Supreme Court cancelled the adjustment of 1,37,517 shiksha mitras to the post of assistant teachers in government-run primary schools, the state government had recruited assistant teachers against 68,500 and 69,000 vacant posts, respectively, in two phases on the orders of the apex court.
“The process of recruitment of 68,500 teachers started in January 2018 and 69,000 teachers in December 2018. However, since then, no fresh recruitment of these teachers has been advertised by the the state government,” claimed an aspirant residing in Prayagraj.
Avanish Pandey. president of Pratiyogi Chatra Sabha, an organisation representing educated unemployed youths vying for government jobs, said that on an average 12,000 teachers retire from government-run primary schools every year.
“The state government had accepted in the Supreme Court over four years ago that more than 52,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant in the state and, therefore, lack of new recruitment is surprising and sad,” he said.
More than 10 lakh BEd and DElEd qualified but unemployed youngsters are frustrated due to lack of any new teachers’ recruitment in the state, claimed Pandey.
The state education department officials are, however, tight-lipped on the issue and maintain that the decision to initiate any new recruitment lies with the state government.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) claims to have expedited the recruitment process in the state. Advertisements are being issued within a month after completing all the formalities regarding the requisitions received from various departments of the state government. The commission issued advertisements for 3,782 posts between April 1 and October 31 this year. Till April 1, the recruitment process for 5,438 posts was in progress. Out of these, selections for 4,394 posts was completed by October 31, UPPSC officials said.
The written examination for recruitment against 328 vacant posts of additional private secretary (APS) in the Uttar Pradesh Secretariat, Board of Revenue, UP, and Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) is scheduled for January 7 by UPPSC. This recruitment is taking place in the state after 10 years. In 2013, the commission had started recruitment for 176 vacant posts which, however, has not been completed till now.
Likewise, the last recruitment by UPPSC of assistant teachers (LT Grade) for government secondary schools was held in 2018. Since then, candidates are waiting for similar recruitment in the state date.
