Class 10 minimum qualification for Level 1 posts: Railways

NEW DELHI: The Railways on Thursday relaxed the rules for those applying for the posts of porters, gate men, helpers and other Level 1 jobs, going back to the criteria it followed till last year.
Railway minister Piyush Goyal said candidates for these jobs have to clear their Class 10 exams.

The Railways in its recruitment advertisement had set a minimum educational qualification of Class 10 and an ITI certificate for railway apprenticeship or equivalent for its 62,907 Level 1 posts for track maintainers, points men, helpers, gate men, porters and others, but has now made the technical certification optional.

"We realised that we have not given candidates enough time to know that the criteria have changed, so we relaxed the qualifications needed to Class 10. We have a robust training programme which we plan to strengthen further. So there should be no problems," the minister said.

The minimum educational qualifications for all Level 1 posts were class 10 or ITI or equivalent till July, 2017. In July, 2017, for many of these Level 1 posts, the minimum educational qualification was changed to class 10 plus an ITI certification or equivalent.

Many people did not know about this, and it was unfair to candidates who had been preparing over the past years for this examination, Goyal said.

"Therefore, it has now been decided that for this exam, the criteria will be class 10 or ITI or equivalent, again," the minister said.

The ministry had earlier also relaxed the age criteria for applicants by extending it by two years across all categories.

It has also clarified that general candidates, who have to pay Rs 500 as examination fees, will get Rs 400 back if they appear for the exam, while those in special categories have to pay Rs 250, which will be fully refunded once they sit for the test.

For a refund, candidates have to submit details of their bank accounts online.

Goyal also said question papers to candidates will be provided in 15 languages and they can now sign their names in any language instead of only in Hindi or English.

The Railways has announced one of the world's largest recruitment processes for 89,409 posts in Level 1 and Level 2 categories. Since recruitment is taking place after four years, many changes proposed in the intervening years had been included in the rules, Goyal said.

However, some of these changes had led to many candidates not being able to apply for the posts this year because of lack of information about the new qualification rules.

Accordingly, the Railways made the changes with respect to certain criteria so that more candidates from all sections of society could get the opportunity to serve the nation by working for the Indian Railways, Goyal said.