Why KPSC preferring only English graduates over Kannada graduates for teaching posts?

In a strange move, the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) has decided to recruit only English graduates for teachers' posts in various residential schools - run by the Social Welfare Department - leaving the Kannada graduates in lurch. Also, as if to rub salt on wounds, the KPSC has flatly denied the Social Welfare Department's request to halt the recruitment to help Kannada graduates.

Following a mandatory rule that teaching applicants must have a degree in English, lakhs of Kannada graduates feel left out, reports Kannada Prabha. After they submitted plea, the Kannada Development Authority and Kannada Sahitya Parishat had requested the Social Welfare Department and the KPSC to halt the recruitment but in vain.

According to a report in Kananda Prabha, the department's deputy secretary Shambhulingaiah had written to the KPSC chairman and secretary that since the notification has caused injustice to the Kannada graduates, it would be fair enough to redraft the rule. He had also stated that he had requested the Social Welfare minister to look into it and until such time, the KPSC should withhold the recruitment. But the KPSC without even bothering to reply has continued its recruitment process, reports Kannada Prabha.

Majority of the graduates in Kannada are also fluent in English language and they are capable enough to teach in that language, if given a chance. But the KPSC's brazen move is detrimental to Kannada in its own land, reports Kannada Prabha quoting SG Siddaramaiah, chairman of Kannada Development Authority.

"There are lakhs of Kannada graduates waiting for an opportunity to work in government institutions. But now we don't even have an opportunity to apply for the vacant posts. The government must intervene at the earliest," a graduate told Kannada Prabha.

But the defiant KPSC says once the government issues notification for recruitment, there's no way that the recruitment process is stalled. "We cannot withhold the process unless a new proposal is made by the government. However, the recruitment is already half way through and this cannot be withheld," a senior officer from the KPSC told Kannada Prabha.

• KPSC
• Karnataka