Response varied on move to let Chowgule shut down HSS

TEAM HERALD

MARGAO:  The government’s decision to grant permission to the Chowgule College management to close down the higher secondary school in phases, evoked mixed reactions.

As expected, the local BJP has come out in support of the government decision, saying the chief minister has protected the interests of the student community. Former BJP Fatorda MLA and ESG Chairman Damu Naik said that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had categorically stated that he would never compromise the interest of the student community. ‘The government has taken the decision after making adequate provision to accommodate the students in other higher secondaries. That’s not all. The government has laid the foundation stone for a college at the multipurpose school complex at Borda. Work on the building is in full pace and once completed will take care of the students”,  Damu said.

“All I can say is that the government has well protected the interest of the student community before taking the decision”, he added.

City-based lawyer and former Chowgule  student Advocate Cleofato Coutinho, who was closely associated with the action group formed to oppose the Chowgule higher secondary school closure, said it is indeed sad that the government has succumbed to the pressures of the Chowgule management. ‘The government should have insisted and prevailed upon the Chowgule management not to shut down the higher secondary school. Though the government claims that students can take admissions in other higher secondary schools, Chowgule was indeed the choice of many a student over the years”, he said.

Coutinho pointed out that government should take care and ensure that educational institutions do not shut shop like factories, which too are guided by a host of industrial and labour laws.

Educationist Prabhakar Timble felt that the Chowgule Education Society was well within its right to seek permission to close down the higher secondary school. ‘Any management has the right to close down its institution by following laid down norms. If the management has the right to open an institution, it also enjoys the right to close it down. In the instant case, the CES had approached the government for closure and had then knocked the doors of the High Court. I don’t think there’s any hanky panky in the government decision”, Timble said. 

He said the interest of the student community can be protected by opening one to two new higher secondary schools in Margao or by expanding the divisions of the existing HSS.

Chowgule higher secondary teaching faculty, Prof Srikant More, who was leading the movement against the Chowgule Education Society moves to close down the HSS, said the government has now assured to accommodate the teachers as well as the student community in a new institution. “Though the Chowgule higher secondary school will be shut down, a new institution is proposed to be set up in the city, which would take care of the interests of both the student and teachers. We the teaching staff were worried about the interest of the student community and our future. But, the new institution will take care of both the students and teachers. This being the case, we don’t see any problem with the closure of the Chowgule HSS”, Prof More said.