Hundreds of students who have obtained Honours degrees from Central University of Karnataka (CUK) are in the doldrums as their degrees are not being considered for the graduate primary teachers’ posts, for which the recruitment process is underway.
As per the notifications issued on March 21 for recruitment of graduate primary teachers (for classes 6 to 8), only those who have studied two subjects for three years are eligible to apply. However, the candidates who have obtained Honours degrees from CUK have studied only one subject for three years and others subjects for two years only.
To be eligible for the English teacher post, for instance, a candidate had to have studied English as an optional subject and any one of the Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Konkani, Sanskrit, History, Economics, Political Science, Geography and Sociology subjects as second optional subject for three years in their degree course.
The students who have obtained Honours degrees from CUK, however, don’t meet this eligibility condition. For instance, the degree holders in Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English have studied only English for three years and other elective subjects the first four semesters only (two years).
“We had raised our objections much before the issuance of the notification. But, nothing has happened. It is an injustice to deny jobs to students who have obtained valid degree courses from a premier institution that functions as per the UGC guidelines,” Akkamahadevi, an aspirant of English teacher post who obtained her MA (Hons.) in English from CUK.
“CUK is also equally responsible for the injustice to its students. The university has been offering Honours degree programme since 2012 and there are hundreds of students, like I am, who have obtained Honours degree just to become ineligible for job. We are regretting to have studied in CUK,” Suresh, another student from Hutti Gold Mines in Raichur district, told The Hindu.
Basavaraj Donur, Registrar (In-Charge) of CUK, wrote to B.C. Nagesh, Minister of Primary & Secondary Education, and requested him to amend the eligibility conditions. However, there was no response from the Government.
“CUK is the only university in the State that is offering Honours programme and I hope that the State Government would honour the programme by making necessary amendments to Cadre and Recruitment Rules so as to accommodate the Honours degree holders,” Mr. Donur said.
