18K more applications for SET received this year

Kolkata: A record 83000 candidates have applied for State Eligibility Test (SET) examination, which is scheduled to take place on January 9, 2022. There has been a significant rise in the number of applications. It has gone up from 65000 in 2019 when the previous edition of the SET examination was held.

"We have received 18000 more applications. Three new subjects have been included this year taking the total number of subjects from 30 to 33 and in addition, there is one general paper," Dipak Kar, chairman of WBCSC said.

The West Bengal College Service Commission (WBCSC) has started disbursal of admit cards for the examination, which is the gateway for recruitment of assistant professors in government-aided colleges. Candidates can download their admit cards by logging into the website www.wbcsconline.in, which is the designated website of the WBCSC.

This will be the first time when questions of at least 50 per cent of the subjects will also be in Bengali version (besides English) except for the non laboratory and non science subjects in which question papers cannot be set in Bengali. The three new subjects that have been introduced are Environmental Science, Business Administration and Arabic.

"There will be 189 centres, covering all 68 subdivisions and Kolkata. The Sunderbans as well as the Hills (Darjeeling and Kalimpong) have also been included. In 2019, when the previous edition of the SET examination was held the number of centres was 88. We have increased the centres as per COVID health protocol guidelines, when a single candidate will sit in a bench," a senior official of WBCSC said.

There will be 189 OICs one each for the test centre and his/her decision will be final in all the cases.

Besides, there will be 195 coordinators, 378 WBCSC appointed observers, 23 nodal officers and 23 executive officers and UGC (University Grants Commission) appointed observers. Wearing of masks will be mandatory for all.

Measures have been taken for sanitisation of exam centres, thermal checking, etc.