Despite being looked down with contempt by a larger section of society, the transgender community is coming forward to showcase their skills and talent in various fields; be it modeling, dancing or teaching. For the first time, around 199 transgender candidates wrote the competitive exams for the Central Teachers Eligibility Test (CTET) to become teachers.
The CTET is an eligibility exam which was introduced in the year 2011 for the candidates who aspired to become primary and secondary school teachers. Clearing this test is mandatory for the aspirants. The CBSE conducts the exam twice a year as Paper-I in which students who aspires to become a primary class teacher (I-V) and the Paper-II is for secondary classes (I-VIII).
As per the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) information and data, since the introduction of the teacher’s eligibility exam, only male and female candidates have opted for the CTET exams. But this year the exam which was held almost after a gap of two year gave an equal opportunity for the third genders by introducing a separate category, beside male and female.
Officials of CBSE told The Pioneer that separate category was introduced earlier but it did not received much application from the third gender candidates. “It is very nice to see a good number of application from the community as well their enthusiasm to show their skills in the field of teaching. CBSE has always encouraged the gender equality and is giving an equal platform to the transgender candidates to excel themselves in the teaching field. We are expecting more candidates next year,” said a senior official.
As per the data shared by the CBSE, a total of 16,91,088 candidates applied for the CTET exam, out of which 7,12,071 were male and 9,78,818 female.
Further a total of 199 transgender candidates applied for the eligibility exam this year in both paper I & II. Further, 33,107 physically disabled candidates attempted the exam.
While in 2017, among the 70 lakh candidates registered for both the Paper-I and II, there were no candidates from the third gender community.
“This is quite encouraging, however, it requires more gender sensitisation in our society to encourage transgenders. In DU, many transgenders do not take admission in the regular colleges even though they get good marks. Further, social and institutional upliftment is important to encourage the transgenders to come forward. Teaching and orientation programmes are conducted at school and university level, transgenders are not included. Transgenders are also children of the God and they need social support to come up in life,” said Rajesh, Professor at Adult and Continuing Education of DU and also social activist.