Beginning 2024, technical graduates appointed into the civil service through the Bhutan Civil Service Examination will be uniformly recruited at the P5 Position level. With this, P5 will be the entry position level for civil servants in the Professional and Management Category (PMC). The decision is in accordance with the Royal Civil Service Commission’s meeting held in 2020.
The reform will be implemented for graduates appearing in the Bhutan Civil Service Examination next year and appointed to the Civil Service in 2024.
As per the RCSC’s notification, MBBS graduates, however, will continue to be recruited into the P4 position level given the shortage of qualified personnel and the requirement in the health sector.
Currently, technical graduates including engineers, medical professionals and bio-science graduates among others enter at the P4 Position level.
A few technical graduates requesting anonymity said the reform could be discouraging for many like them.
“Most of the people who have done diploma over the past years, for instance, nursing diploma, get motivated to upgrade their study seeing the benefits especially due to the grading system. So, if this is reduced, these people won’t have a strong urge or impulse to upgrade their studies,” said a technical student.
“As I’m a technical student and I have friends who are taking up non-technical courses, the level of hard work we need to put in is different. When we compare the number of students failing examinations, usually it is higher for those in technical colleges. Moreover, we need to deal with a lot of practical sessions,” added another student.
“We know that the duration of the study period for technical students is longer than that of non-technical students which means we have to study and put more effort than others,” said another student.
RCSC’s detailed review of the career progression system of civil servants in the PMC category states that civil servants, particularly in the technical fields could stagnate at the P2 level. This is due to a lack of available vacancies for promotion and the need for necessary competencies for specialist positions.
P2 level is the deciding point for a civil servant to either continue service in the specialisation/profession position or move to a management position.
According to the Commission, stagnation in a position for an extended period is not desirable and can be demotivating. Given the concerns, RCSC reviewed the issues in detail exploring similar systems across countries.
The Commission consulted with various national stakeholders within the Civil Service during the executive forums held in February 2020. Following the consultations and deliberations, the Commission decided to make the entry position Level for PMC uniform across the board at P5.
On average, the commission recruits around 150 technical graduates every year through the Bhutan Civil Service Examination.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Sonam Pem
