In Kerala, stricter driving tests prove a bumpy ride as pass rates drop to 52%

Kerala tightens driving test norms, leading to a significant increase in failure rates due to poor skills.

Gone are the days when the majority of the applicants who underwent driving tests in Kerala emerged with flying colours. If the data from the Kerala Motor Vehicles department (MVD) is any indication, it is in fact a bumpy ride for many after the MVD had tightened the driving test norms.

According to the statistics available with the MVD, close to 50% of the applicants have been failing the driving tests due to poor skills.

The average pass percentage in driving tests, according to Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, is merely 52% in Kerala now after the process had been tightened.

In the past, a motor vehicle inspector (MVI) was issuing 60 driving licences a day, taking six minutes to complete the entire ground test, road test, and screening of the candidate, among other things. As part of tightening the process, the MVD had put a cap on the number of driving tests to be conducted under an MVI to 40 per day.

This was followed by the installation of dashboard cameras and vehicle location tracking devices for recording the driving test of light motor vehicles (LMV)-category vehicles.

“There was a time when 122 candidates out of a total of 124 candidates who appeared for the driving test in a day under a motor vehicle inspector breezed through the tests,” said the Minister in the Assembly recently. “Raising the standards of the driving test is imperative to reduce the recurring fatal road accidents in the State,” he said.

Earlier, when the MVD brought in reforms in the age-old driving tests in Kerala – which is known for corrupt and murky deals where the nexus of agents and a section of officials had been calling the shots at the transport offices – the driving schools had led a pitched protest against the government suspending driving tests across the State, forcing it to relax some of the provisions in the reforms it suggested last year.