Civil Service Commission suspends remaining written exams for 2020

MANILA, Philippines – The remaining written career service examinations for this year have been suspended in light of the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) announced.

CSC said in a statement posted on their website on Thursday that the existing health protocols — like physical distancing, ban on mass gatherings, minimized public transportation — forced the suspension of the following exams:

– Fire Officer Examination, Penology Officer Examination, Basic Competency on Local Treasury Examination (scheduled for 21 June 2020)

-Career Service Examination (CSE) PPT (Professional and Subprofessional Levels) (scheduled for 9 August 2020)

– Intermediate Competency on Local Treasury Examination, Pre-Employment Test, Promotional Test, Ethics-Oriented Personality Test (scheduled on 11 October 2020)

“In view of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) continuing pandemic, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) will not be conducting any written career service examinations for the rest of the year,” CSC said.

“In an advisory, the CSC said the implementation of public health standards during the pandemic, such as physical distancing, reduced capacity of public transportation, and restriction on mass gatherings, has led it to cancel the following civil service examinations via the pen-and-paper test (PPT) mode,” they added.

CSC also added that the already postponed Professional and Subprofessional CSE-PPT scheduled last March 15 would be reset to a new date in 2021 — details of which, will be announced in a separate issuance.

Initially, CSC moved to continue the examinations amid the threat of localized coronavirus transmissions, but it was ultimately suspended after COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose, which forced the national government to place the whole country under a lockdown.

As of now, coronavirus infections are still increasing in the Philippines, recording its second-highest reported “fresh” or latest cases in a day, at 481, bringing the total number of cases to 27,799.

Of this, 1,116 have died while 7,090 have recovered.