Lug a typewriter to Railway exam centre
If you are aspiring for a job in the railways and have applied for junior accounts assistant or senior clerk’s post, don’t forget to travel to Chennai for a test without a bulky typewriter.
The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) refuses to change with the times and have stuck to the age-old system where a candidate carries his own typewriter to the examination centre. At a time when most of the government as well as the private sector have been conducting their examinations online, the RRB’s move is retrograde and baffles many.
The tests which commenced on November 6 would go on till November 15 for which more than 10,000 candidates would appear for the existing 800 vacancies in the Southern railways, among which 500 vacancies are for Assistant Station Masters (ASMs) and 300 for the rest.
As per the schedule, the aptitude test for ASMs would be held from November 11 to 15 while the skill test for the posts of Junior Accounts Assistants and Senior Clerks would be held from November 6 to November 10.
The announcement for the examination was published sometime in the middle of 2012. Preliminary examination was conducted on December 2, 2012. Those who cleared it were called for the main examination which was held on August 8, 2013. Those who made the cut have been asked to appear for the final stage of aptitude and skill tests.
T Praveen of Tiruchy, who will be travelling to Chennai to take the test on Friday, was seen carefully dusting a typewriter, which he has borrowed from a friendly lawyer’s office. Praveen always had an impression that the typewriter was a thing of the past- he couldn’t have been more wrong!
Praveen was desperate to get hold of a typewriter, but it was hard to come by. “When I approached the lone type writing institute in Thiruvanaikoil, they refused to lend one fearing I might damage it. So I had to seek help from my friend”, Praveen fumed. There are about five centres in Chennai which will be conducting the tests. S N Karuppannaswami, Member-Secretary, RRB, Chennai said, they are simply following the norms laid down by the board. “We have asked them to bring typewriters. This is not the first time that the candidates have been asked to do that either,” he said.