SSC Enables Candidates to View Question Papers, Cuts Challenge Fee & Introduces Normalization
SDG 4: Quality Education | SDG 16: Peace, Justice & Institutions
Institutions: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
On 03 October 2025, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) announced major reforms to boost transparency, fairness, and convenience in its exams. Candidates can now view, store and review their question papers, responses, and correct answers - and use them to challenge answer keys. To ease contestation, SSC halved the challenge fee from ₹100 to ₹50 per question. A toll-free helpline and an online grievance portal have been set up to fast-track redressal.
To address cross-shift difficulty variations, SSC adopted equi-percentile normalization, aligning results across different batches fairly. For exam security, the commission introduced Aadhaar-based authentication, secure digital vault transmission of questions, and stricter monitoring with tighter action on errant centres.
Upcoming exams between October 2025–March 2026 (JE, MTS, Sub-Inspector, Constable, etc.) will follow these reformed practices.
These changes reinforce recruitment transparency and trust in public service exams, aligning with commitments under public sector reforms and digital governance (e-governance, accountability).
What is equi-percentile normalization? → It’s a statistical method that compares students based on their percentile ranks rather than raw marks, thereby adjusting for varying test difficulty across shifts to ensure fairness.
What is SSC? → The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is a central recruiting body under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. It conducts nationwide competitive examinations for recruitment to non-gazetted posts in ministries, departments, and subordinate offices of the Government of India. SSC matters because it handles one of the largest volumes of public recruitment in the country - millions of candidates annually - making its procedures crucial for transparency, fairness, and public trust in government hiring.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: As SSC scales these reforms across dozens of exams, how can monitoring and audit mechanisms evolve to ensure integrity of disclosures, dispute resolution, and normalization?
Follow the full news here: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2174557