First school for transgenders has been inaugurated in Lahore by the Punjab School Education Department (SED). The school will impart regular education as well as opportunities and programs for skill learning and training.
Three such schools for transgender persons exist in Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan. This school has been opened up in a separate building in Government Girls High School, Barkat Market, New Garden Town.
36 transgenders have been so far enrolled in the school, where they will be engaged in two shifts; one for regular education and the other for learning skills. Teachers will also be from the transgender community. This way the educated persons of the community will also be engaged in meaningful employment and a chance to uplift and organize their community.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by educationists, trans rights’ activists, people from civil society, and transgenders.
This school will open up avenues of learning for a community that is systematically left out, and being the first in Lahore may prove to be one of the first important steps towards lifting up the community. Such was the sentiment shared by all who were part of the inauguration ceremony.
