KEA Principal Recruitment 2026 Notification Out - Apply Online for 247 Posts

The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), Bengaluru, has released two recruitment notifications dated 03.09.2026 on behalf of the Department of School Education (Pre-University Education), Government of Karnataka, to fill 247 posts of Principal in Government Pre-University Colleges. Of these, 31 posts fall under the Kalyana-Karnataka (KK) Local Cadre (Notification No. ED/KEA/29/Recruitment/2026-KK), and 216 posts fall under the Residual Parent Cadre, or RPC (Notification No. ED/KEA/28/Recruitment/2026-RPC). Both notifications share the same pay scale, application window, fee structure, and exam pattern, and are covered together in this article as a single KEA Principal Recruitment 2026 drive.

KEA Principal Recruitment 2026 is not open to the general public or fresh candidates . Only Lecturers currently working in Government Pre-University Colleges under the School Education Department are eligible, subject to the qualification and service conditions below.

No age limit is prescribed for KEA Principal Recruitment 2026. The notification states that since this recruitment fills vacancies in the Principal post from among serving Lecturers in Government Pre-University Colleges who have completed 10 years of service under the School Education Department, no upper age limit applies.

Rs. 90,200 – Rs. 1,59,200

1. A minimum of 50 marks in Paper 1 (Kannada) is required to qualify, but Paper 1 marks are not counted while preparing the merit list – qualifying nature only.
2. Only marks scored in Papers 2 and 3 are used to prepare the final merit list.
3. Negative marking of 0.25 marks applies for each wrong answer in Papers 2 and 3 (bilingual Kannada/English question papers).
4. Shortlisting for document verification is done at 1:2 ratio against vacancies, category-wise, based on Paper 2 & 3 scores.