Enrolment in schools for trans people increasing

ISLAMABAD: The Transeducation Project which started three years ago with only 17 students in south Punjab has now reached the milestone of a total of 244 enrollments.

More interestingly, the project which was started for imparting education to the transgender community with only one school in Multan has now been furthered to two more schools- one in Dera Ghazi Khan established in August 2022 and the other in Bahawalpur established in March 2022.

Coordinator Special Initiatives School Education Department, Government of South Punjab Hina Choudhary while talking to The News said, “The transgender community which was only involved in sex work, dance and begging have now started their own beauty parlors, cooking jobs and other respectable works after training from our labs”.

Moreover, other achievements shared with The News revealed four transgender students passing Matric Exams in 2023 while six passed in 2024, five students passed inter exams in 2023 who later got enrolled in BS Sociology Emmerson University session 2023 while two transgender students passed inter exams in 2023 and got enrolled in BS Sociology Islamia University Bahawalpur session 2023.

The Multan school for the transgender community which was established three years ago as a pipeline project with only 17 students has now a total of 111 enrollments. In this school, a total of 69 students are enrolled in primary classes, 12 in elementary classes, 18 in Matric level and 12 in higher secondary inter classes.

Whereas the second school in Bahawalpur which started with only 10 students in March 2022 has now a total of 74 enrollments. In this school, a total of 55 students are enrolled in primary classes, 15 in elementary classes, 18 and 4 in higher secondary inter classes.

Further, the school in Dera Ghazi Khan which was established in August 2022 with only seven students has now a total of 59 enrollments. In this School, a total of 50 students are enrolled in primary classes and nine in elementary classes.

Apart from this, for training and skill development for the transgender community, the schools have established technical labs keeping in view their interests for their employability such as cooking and baking labs, stitching and designing labs, beauty parlours, IT labs and production houses.