‘Do SSC exams even have a point?’ Thousands affected by faulty centres, technical glitches, demand new vendor

SSC CGL Exam 2025: Mohammad Harris, 24, a Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Selection Post Phase 13 aspirant from Prayagraj, had to face multiple hurdles while appearing for his SSC CGL examination – first in downloading the admit card and then reaching his examination centre.

“Despite filling up centre preferences for Prayagraj, Kanpur and Lucknow, I was allocated a centre in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, that too in a far-flung area with no proper commute from the city’s railways station,” said Harris. He has devoted the last two years to SSC CGL preparation and is frustrated by the constant spate of problems. For his SSC Stenographer exam, scheduled for August 6-11, 2025, he was once again assigned a centre out of his state and in Patna, Bihar.

The Staff Selection Commission is a central body that conducts recruitment exams for non-gazetted Group B and C (non-technical) posts in various central government ministries. To put the scale of these exams into perspective, nearly 3 crore applied for the 17 exams notified in 2022-23 and under 75,000 posts were allotted that year.

The 2025 SSC exams have been marred by glitches and cancellations. The recent SSC Selection Post Phase 13 examinations were scheduled for July 24 till August 1, but cancelled for some centres in cities like Hoogly, West Bengal, and Delhi. On August 8, SSC Stenographer Grade C, D first shift exam were canceled at Maharshi Mehi Online Examination Centre, Sabour, Bhagalpur in Bihar due to ‘operational challenges’.

Thousands of candidates appearing for SSC examinations across different grades in the country have been protesting against the technical glitches, poor computer equipment, far-off centres and poor invigilation at centres.

Speaking to Careers360, many alleged alleged that even where the Selection Post Phase 13 examination was held, they were not able to complete due to mouse, serve or computer issues. On August 8, a fresh SSC Selection Post Phase 13 exam was announced for 55,000 candidates; SSC CGL 2025 was postponed.

Even after traveling from different states, there is no certainty if the SSC CGL exam will be conducted or not. “Students are travelling 500-700 km just for the exam and if the exam centre conditions are deplorable, what’s even the point of the exams? When candidates ask for rough sheets, poor quality paper is provided, not to mention the rude behaviour of invigilators,” stated Ram V Singh, one of the protestors who participated in Delhi.

On July 31, a protest was organised in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar with aspirants demanding the SSC CGL examination be revised with better centres and equipment.

SSC CGL Exam: Technical failures, rude invigilators

On August 5, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) informed the candidates that the Staff Selection Post Phase 13 examination won’t be cancelled, rather retests would be conducted.

Singh stated, “There is a serious shortage of proper functioning systems and exam invigilators are not cooperative. They fail to provide pens or extra supplementary papers. Every year more than 30 lakh candidates appear for SSC examinations and many prepare for years. This year, there were numerous complaints of computers shutting down, non-functional mouses, server issues, far-off centres with poor transportation connectivity”.

“We demand that the vendor must be switched, from the currently-blacklisted company Eduquity Career Technologies to TCS . There have been technical failures, reports of system crashes, login-in issues, keyboard malfunctions, zero back-up support, poor centre management, and clueless invigilators at many exam centres,” he added.

The students and teachers protesting at Jantar Mantar were hassled by the police officials at Janta Mantar. One of the protesters said, “As aspirants, we don't want to protest. But the poor conduct of SSC examinations has pushed us to take to the streets.”

The lack of attention rankles. “From every household, at least one child is preparing for SSC,” said Vaibhav Gupta, an aspirant. “This is a huge population but governance is extremely poor.”

SSC Exams: Remote centres, poor equipment

Every part of the exam process has been punishing.

An aspirant whose SSC CGL exam centre was allotted in Varanasi complained of having to walk “at least 2 km” to the centre as there was no transport facility. Upon reaching, he discovered his system wasn’t working. “The centre was extremely far where I had walked at least 2 km to reach the centre. For the SSC Selection Post Phase 13 exam. My mouse wasn’t working for two to three minutes and I couldn't access the exam properly. I lost time due to poor quality equipment,” he said.

Another candidate whose exam was conducted in Jabalpur had to change computers four-five times to write the exams.

Singh stated that all SSC examinations are conducted within a one to two hours timeframe and every second wasted due to poor equipment is precious exam time lost. At some centres, exams stretched to five to six hours due to faulty equipment and several other issues were recorded.

Singh said, “Candidates at centre Malav Kanya Higher Secondary School, Indore, Madhya Pradesh were supposed to write the exam from 5-6 pm but the exam was extended to five hours and candidates left around 9:30-10 pm. In one centre, bouncers were present.”

SSC exam results delay

Another significant issue is the delayed announcement of SSC Central Police Organisation (CPO) final results. Ashish Chaudhary, 25, an SSC CPO aspirant preparing since 2023, alleges that SSC faces accusations not only of poor examination centres, but also of delaying results. While the final exam was conducted on March 8 the results have been delayed for eight months.

“The recruitment of SSC CPO for 5,300 vacant seats has been going on since February 2024 and usually its recruitment completes with people joining within six to seven months. However, for more than 18 months, the result has not been announced. In its pre-exam, around 12 lakh candidates appeared and around 20,000- 25,000 are awaiting the results.”