Incentives on the cards to encourage Army officers to do well in exams for promotion
Incentives on the cards to encourage Army officers to do well in exams for promotion
The Army is looking at providing additional incentives to officers performing outstandingly well in their promotion exams, sources privy to the development told The Indian Express. This is to encourage them to be well prepared for these exams aimed at enhancing their professional capabilities.
As per the new policy, which will be implemented from next year, officers performing exceedingly well in different promotion and competitive exams will get additional incentives in the form of bonus marks for their next exam. While there is an existing policy at present on similar lines, it could not yield results because of its stringent nature. It is learnt that no officer has achieved the expected standards in last 10 years. The existing policy states that officers must clear all exams under ‘Part B’ and ‘Part D’ and secure 75 per cent marks in each subject to be eligible for bonus marks for subsequent exams.
‘Part B’ and ‘Part D’ exams are mandatory for all Army officers for promotion to the ranks of Major and Lieutenant Colonel, respectively. As per sources, in the backdrop that the existing policy could not be implemented due to its “unrealistic nature”, the Army has proposed that all officers who clear the exams in one go and perform exceedingly well in a certain subject, will be given bonus marks in the same subject in the subsequent exam.
As per the new policy, officers securing 70-75 per cent marks in the exams would be given 40 marks in the same subject in the next exam, those with 60-75 per cent marks will be given 30 marks, and those securing 60-65 per cent will be given 20 marks for the same subjects in subsequent exams.
The parameters will differ for the Defence Services Staff College entrance exam, in which about 250 officers qualify for the course and another 80 to 100 officers are nominated for other equivalent courses. Officers performing exceedingly well in the exams will also be given due recognition as a distinguished list carrying their names will be published internally.
The new policy was brought in following an internal assessment on the reasons for below-average performance of officers in these exams.
The assessment attributed the poor performanceto the deployment of officers in various operations — particularly in northern and eastern theatres.
Another reason is that as long as the officers cleared their ‘Part B’ and ‘Part D’ exams in three attempts each, the performance in them did not directly impact their career progression.Around 1,000 officers are expected to achieve the standards every year with the implementation of the new policy, and the figure will increase with time. “The modified policy, once implemented, is expected to increase the overall pass percentage in the first attempt. This will increase their availability and enhance the professional threshold of officers,” a source said. Earlier this year, the Army brought in a new HR policy under which Lieutenant Colonels approved for promotion to the rank of Colonels can voluntarily continue in their field of expertise and not move for command appointments, which is the standard practice at present.
This would allow them to build their domain expertise on niche technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and drones.
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