Most Bhutanese studying in India have graduated and are back in the country. Many more will be joining the pool soon from various other colleges, both from within and out the country. Their ultimate aim is to join the civil service, but before that, they want one thing to be cleared. And that is whether there is preliminary examination (PE) or not.
The government promised to do away with the PE for the university graduates sitting for Bhutan Civil Service Examination this year.
“We don’t have any idea about Preliminary Exam. It would benefit if government tell us whether there is PE or not,” says, Ngawang Tenzin, a graduate.
Like Ngawang, there are many who are still unsure whether they would be sitting for the PE or not. ‘We want to know fast as we have to prepare’, many say.
Recently, in the National Assembly, the Panbang MP, Dorji Wangdi, inquired on the progress made on the pledges made last year, one of them being the PE.
The Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay, responded that the government is discussing with the Royal Civil Service Commission on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Royal Civil Service Commission said that they did receive a letter from the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources to do away with preliminary examination. But, based on the provision of the Civil Service Act of Bhutan 2010, the Commission could not accept their request.
“We have not given any direction to do away with the Preliminary Examination. From our Secretariat side, we have been preparing the ground works to conduct Preliminary Examination here, but we have not received the specified direction to do away with PE from the present Commission,” said Dorji Tshering, Director, RCSC.
There is no definite answer as yet but going by what the Director said there would mostly likely be the PE examination.
Last year, over 3,000 students sat for the PE and only over 1,600 got through the exam.
