Civil Service Exams to be delayed by three months

PE may be held in in October and ME towards end of December

The much awaited Bhutan Civil Service Exams (BCSE) will be delayed by around three months.

The RCSC Chairperson Karma Hamu Dorjee said that in a normal year students start registering for the BCSE Exams by mid June when they all graduate, then Preliminary Examinations (PE) are around August and the Main Exams (ME) happen in October, but this year due to COVID-19 there has been a delay and so the BCSE Exams will be delayed by around three months.

Jigme Norbu of the Civil Service Exam Division (CSED) said that in pervious years all students would have graduated by mid-June but this year graduation for all graduates will be happening only by around mid-August.

He said the proposal of the Exam Division is to start the registration of students by mid-August 2020 and then have the first Preliminary Examinations around October 2020 and the final Main Exams by around end of December 2020.

The Viva or oral interviews of students would then take place a week after the exams.

Jigme, however, made it clear that the above timeline is still tentative pending a final approval from the Commission after which they may need to get government permission as well.

Around 800 plus slots is expected to be on offer this year. Last year 889 slots were available.

The RCSC Chair said even when the exams are conducted, proper guidelines of social distancing and other safety requirements will be followed.

Jigme said that in a normal year the registration starts from mid June and goes on till July so that students can not only register and get their documents, but they can also prepare for the PE exams in the first week of August.

He said this year a similar gap will have to be given which is why the PE exams has been proposed for October.

The minimum level of qualification needed to register for the PE is to be a graduate. The 100 marks paper has four parts with 25 questions each. One part is English , another is Dzongkha, there is problem solving or elementary mathematics and then data interpretation.

Students get two hours and 30 minutes to finish the paper.

Based on the PE the RCSC will come up with a cut off percentage for the Main Examinations and only those who qualify can sit for the exams.

In this round there will be an overall 100 marks allotment of which 10 percent is for the degree grades, 70 percent is for the written exams and the final 20 percent is for the Viva or interview.

In the case of B.Ed. opting for Education Service the written exam is 60 percent and academic achievement is 20 percent.

For the written exams there will be three papers each for the general, technical, educational and dzongkha services.

Jigme said that the exams for this round will only be held if there are specific vacancies in the respective groups and sub-groups.

The general group comprises of Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration (PGDPA) for officers, Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Administration (PGDFM) for finance officers, revenue officers, Audit etc. and then Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) for teachers.

In this group the first paper is Dzongkha, second paper is on English and General Knowledge and the third paper is on Bhutan and its Socio-Political Institutions and Socio-Economic Development. Each paper here will carry equal weightage.

The exams for the B.Ed. graduates opting for Education Service will have papers on English Language, Dzongkha Language and Teacher Aptitude Test.

For those in the Technical Service like MBBS, Engineering students and others the papers will be Language and General Knowledge common paper of 20 percent, General Subject Knowledge of 15 percent and Subject Specialisation Paper of 35 percent.

For the Dzongkha Service group, the papers will be Dzongkha Language and General Knowledge with 20 percent, English Language and Current Affairs with 15 percent and Buddhist Studies with 35 percent.

The Viva Voce interview done in bilingual in both Dzongkha and English will look at manner and disposition (5 marks), language proficiency in Dzongkha and English (20 marks) and Bhutanese dialects or international language (5 marks), professional subject knowledge (10 marks), general awareness (10 marks), presentation skills or organization of thought (10 marks), analytical ability (10 marks), promptness in comprehension and clarity in expression (10 marks), confidence (5 marks), extra curricular activities (10 marks) and academic and other achievements (5 marks) all coming to a total of 100 marks.