Reforming Educational Spaces! In A First, 3 Transgender Teachers Selected For Karnataka Government Schools

In a first, three people from the transgender community made it to the final tentative list of graduate primary teachers (GPT) in Karnataka state. This year, the government announced a one per cent reservation for transgender persons in the GPT recruitment. Reportedly a total of ten people had applied for the role, out of which three people were selected. Through a tweet, the Karnataka Government announced on November 19 that the three selected candidates had been successfully recruited in the state-run schools along with the 13,363 newly selected and recruited educators.

Representation At Schools

Karnataka state education minister, BC Nagesh, tweeted that the government has been actively working to improve the educational quality and infrastructure in the government schools to ensure a better and inclusive learning experience for the students. He added that "The focus on comprehensive development of students and student-teacher friendly environments is highly necessary." Releasing a list of selected 13,363 candidates among the 15,000 applications that had appeared for the examination, his tweet read that this year there was a specific focus on the one per cent reservation "given in teacher recruitment for gender minorities."

According to several media reports, about ten transgender candidates had appeared for the exams, out of which three qualified individuals were selected for the role. The selected candidates include Suresh Babu from Chikkaballapura, who will be teaching the English language, Ravikumar Y.R. from Madhugiri and Ashwathama from Raichur for the subject of Social Science.

ನ.14ರಂದು 7,601 ಶಾಲಾ ಕೊಠಡಿಗಳ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣಕ್ಕೆ ಶಂಕು ಸ್ಥಾಪನೆ ನೆರವೇರಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಇಂದು 15 ಸಾವಿರ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರ ನೇಮಕಾತಿ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ 1:1 ಅನುಪಾತದ 'ತಾತ್ಕಾಲಿಕ ಆಯ್ಕೆ' ಪಟ್ಟಿಯನ್ನು ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಒಟ್ಟು 15,000 ಹುದ್ದೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಅರ್ಜಿ ಆಹ್ವಾನಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ 13,363 ಹುದ್ದೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಅಭ್ಯರ್ಥಿಗಳು ಆಯ್ಕೆಯಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. (2/4)

— B.C Nagesh (@BCNagesh_bjp) November 18, 2022

Newer Reforms Ahead

Speaking to the media, BC Nagesh stated, "The target was to complete the recruitment process of 15,000 teachers in a strict time frame. Accordingly, the process from the date of notification to the release of the provisional selection list of 1:1 ratio was completed within nine months.'' The selected teachers would be appointed to the 'C' zone schools in the state, and a recruitment process of about 2,500 high schools is expected to start by February 2023. He added that if candidates wanted to express any form of objection to the list, they could submit it by November 23.

An article by The Hindu also reported that the recruitment process saw engineering graduates being selected for teacher posts for the first time. A total of 19 engineering graduates made it to the final list among the 13,363 eligible names. Out of the total selected candidates, 1,768 GPTs were selected for the English language, 5,450 for Maths and Science, 4,521 for Social Science, and 1,624 teachers for the subject of Biology.

Also Read: Kerala: Trans 'Gender Options' To Be Included In Government Application Forms