Aptitude test alone is not enough

Ministry of Public Service Commission (MPSC) has one of the recruitment process known as Graduate Recruitment Exercise (GRE), generally with this procedure, vacancies are advertised without the need of that condition of years of experience hence the method becoming an exception to many jobs that tend to insert in years of experience as one of the terms and conditions. This method tends to attract fresh graduates and other old graduates that have tried to look for employment for years in vain.
On September 10, 2018, a friend for purpose of protecting his identity let me call him Mugisha Brian (MB), saw an advert in one of the Ugandan dailies and it was PSC that had advertised under GRE procedure. He phoned and told me that he was going to apply. His tone could not be mistaken as it was full of ecstasy for this opportunity. Knowing how herculean a task it is getting a job through GRE, I never wanted to water down his excitement. I encouraged him to try his luck.
Indeed he followed his heart and was lucky PSC had introduced some innovation of applying online meaning that unlike in the past where graduates had only two options of either getting PSC forms online or had to get hard copy forms from their Headquarters in Kampala, fill them and bring hard copy to the MPSC, which is also in Kampala, this time around all one needed was a stable internet and one was ‘good to go’- one could apply submit everything online minus storming the city. Recently, he called me again over-joyed that PSC had sent him a message that he was among those that had been short listed and therefore he should prepare for an aptitude test that was to be held at Makerere University.
His name had been placed in the morning shift-8am thus to keep time he travelled all the way from Kisoro to Kampala a day prior to the scheduled exam day. He was lucky for at least he had relatives in Kampala who accommodated him.
He went and sat the so-called exam, but within an hour or so he had finished and he was back home. I shuddered to myself which exam last less than an hour.
Curiously I asked him whether he was through with the exam, which he replied in affirmative. I probed further on how many hours and kind of exam that they had subjected them to and he told me that ‘’the aptitude was to be done in 40 minutes and it was uniform regardless of which post one applied for.’’ I could see frustration registered on his face, he went on to narrate to me the ordeal, on how they asked them bizarre questions.
His story rhymed well with another colleague’s of mine who went through the same ordeal last year at Namboole Stadium. I asked him the post he applied for. I tried to make sense of what the aptitude was for in regard to the post and honestly speaking I couldn’t figure out how that exam was ever going to apply to the post that he applied for.
Listening to my friend’s narative, I wish PSC had other methods of testing graduates in addition to the aptitude test. This is because whether the aptitude test of 40 or so minutes can bring out crème-de-crème is not only very controversial, but also debatable!!
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