EPS exam application now open for everyone (with notice)

KATHMANDU: Candidates who applied in the shipbuilding sector will be allowed to apply for the language exam in the manufacturing sector as well.

The Department of Foreign Employment issued a notice on Friday and informed that they can apply for the language test as well.

According to the department’s EPS Korea section, the application submission date has been set for Poush 16 to 18 (Jan 1 to 3).

Following the filing of a case in the Patan High Court by 18 examinees, including Suraj Pathak, who applied in the shipbuilding sector, demanding that they be allowed to fill out the application form in the production sector as well, the court issued an order in the name of the department to “do as per the petitioner’s demand.”

In the order, it is said, “Since it is not possible to deprive the applicants from filling the application form, let the applicants, including the interested persons of the same nature as the applicant, not be stopped from filling the application form which was opened from the Poush 2 (Dec 18) according to the notification of the Mangsir 19 (Dec 5) and allow them to fill the examination application form.”

The government has come under increased scrutiny after police shot and baton-charged two teenagers dead and wounded scores more during protests over the Korean language test.

Korea has a policy of not participating in the language exam within one year after selecting an area, according to Danduraj Ghimire, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security.

Those who took the language exam in the shipbuilding sector were not permitted to take the language test in the manufacturing sector.

On Friday, they protested outside the Foreign Employment Department’s Employment Permit System Branch (EPS) office, claiming that they should also take the production sector language exam. At the same time, a protest took place in Balkumari.