Thiruvananthapuram: The universities should take the initiative to include new courses in the recruitment guidelines of the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC), remarked its outgoing chairman MK Zakir. New PSC Chairman Dr MR Baiju is set to take charge from Sunday.
"The universities should urge the government to amend the special rules whenever new courses are introduced so that the latter are valid qualifications for PSC recruitment,' Zakir added. "Only then the candidates who pass those courses would be eligible for the jobs that are notified by the PSC."
PSC has approved all the graduate courses offered by all the open universities and distance education centres that have the approval of the University Grants Commission. However, only the candidates who have passed the regular courses could be appointed in the posts that demand such candidates as per the special rules.
The special rules can only be amended by the government.
Even though Forensic Sciences course was started a few years ago, it wasn’t included in the special rules. Graduates who studied this course complained that they were ignored while the regular BSC graduates were considered for these posts.
PSC approves all the certificates that have the approval of the UGC. However, in some circumstances, even the UGC-approved courses need to be validated by a certificate issued by the respective universities, Zakir clarified.
The subjects of some modern courses would only be slightly different. For instance, Clinical Psychology is not same as the regular Psychology course. When there is a dispute, a certificate issued by the university is required to determine whether the candidate has the desired eligibility, he explained.
Apply with due care
Candidates often realise that the courses that they studied aren’t suited for the posts only when they apply for them.
Zakir said that the PSC should avoid such situations where the candidates become helpless when their course isn’t suited for the posts that they intend to apply.
The candidates could refer the PSC website to learn about the equivalent eligibility for various posts. Besides, they could also access the eligibility in previous recruitments, court orders regarding these and the government orders too.
Zakir advised job aspirants to apply only after scrutiny.
Around 1,81,647 candidates were given PSC recommendation for appointment during my tenure, Zakir confirmed. He added that the Kerala PSC had approved around 20,000 appointments even during 2020, when other state PSCs had stalled operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.