On Monday, The Indian Air Force launched its system for conducting the recruitment exams online and from January 2018, IAF will officially switch to online mode of examinations. The registrations for the exam due in January 2018 will begin from December 15.
Minister of State for Defense Subhash Bhamre, launched the web portal for the online examinations. The IAF is the first among the defense forces to switch to online examination system the proposal for which was approved in October.
"The selection system for officers and airmen cadres in the IAF has been continuously evolving and sustained efforts are in place to strengthen the testing system. Though the existing system is time-tested and well proven, constraints of testing capacity and geographical reach were major limitations in according opportunity to all deserving and eligible candidates from across the country, especially the rural youth," an official statement said.
"The project will be implemented with effect from January 2018 for Air Force Common Admission Test (AFCAT) for Officer's cadre and Scheduled Test for Airmen Recruitment (STAR) for Airmen cadre," the statement said.
In order to make the recruitment system more candidate friendly and to improve the efficiency of the recruitment system, a MoU was was signed on October 31 with C-DAC.
Earlier IAF used to have 100 centers for the officers exam and 14 centers for the Airmen selection exams. There were no Centers in certain states and UTs due to which candidates have to spend large sum of money in order to arrive on the allotted test center for exam and with the new system, there will be approximately 760 examination center across the nation.
"It will enable approximately four lakh candidates for Airmen's selection and two lakh for Officer's selection, to appear in the exam every six months."