Letters to The EDITOR: Computer diploma

With the commitment of one lakh jobs by the State government, the unemployed aspirants have seen a ray of hope. However, the recent notification of recruitment by DHSFW/DME/Ayush has brought a new concern for many. While most aspirants would not be eligible for posts like nursing that requires specific education, posts like JA/LDA/CO are the few countable posts that every graduate aspirants aim for.

Yet, the posts that demanded basic computer knowledge, which considered a 6-month computer diploma now suddenly has been raised to 1-year diploma. This will automatically disqualify all those skilled hardworking candidates with a valid 6-month diploma preparing for exams, as now their diploma is called invalid. Point to note that Junior Assistants in Secretariat, DHS, etc to need a 6-month course only. With the rise in technology and the internet, candidates are often more skilled in computer applications and could learn from free sources like YouTube too. And to check skill, these exams are always followed by a technical computer skill test, which is a mandatory step. The focus should be made on the test which verifies the skills (say, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Tally, etc. whatever needed) than the mere length or slight difference in the syllabus of the diploma.

This is a request to the departments to kindly allow all those bright candidates with a 6-month computer diploma instead of a 1-year as they were waiting with a hope to serve the state, and this kills the morale as well as gives a scope of rising in fake certificates, whereas as a state, we should be more focused on truly skilled hardworking honest employees in the government to boost the system.

An aspirant.

World Radio Day

February 13 marks World Radio Day. The day was decided by UNESCO following a request from the Spanish Radio Academy. Many may know, Radio Ceylon, known as the 'king of the airwaves, was the oldest radio station in Asia, dating back to 1925. More than an entertainer, Radio constituted a platform for democratic discourse and paved the way to shape society. film songs and cricket commentaries would be sheer fun on AIR. Some exceptional commentators like Alan McGilvray, John Arlott, Suresh Saraiya, and in later years Harsha Bhogle, had enthralled the listeners with their brilliant running commentary. Their wonderful narrations of the game enabled us to construct an image from the words we heard and create a rich movie of the match in our mind's eye. And the 'news' through the timeless voices of Lotika Ratnam, Melville de Mellow and Vijay Daniels, to name a few, would be vibrant, capturing the mood of the nation. Can we ever forget programmes on Hindi film songs like manchahe geet, binaca geet mala, and aap ki farmaish? The history of the radio is a fascinating one that communicated from distances, moving through time and connecting across memories.

Ranganathan Sivakumar,

Chennai – 600 091