The Goa Suraksha Manch is slowly pushing itself to the brink of being irrelevant in Goa. Admittedly, MGP’s supremo Sudin Dhavalikar’s, move to pull himself out of MoI politics – itself a political move – has stumped BBSM. BBSM piggybacked on MGP’s support to take on the BJP on the issue of grants to English primary schools but have been struck with twin blows of the MGP joining the BJP to form the government and now openly stating the “MoI chapter was closed”. Dhavalikar admitted that the issue did not pay any dividends and their candidates lost by making MoI an election issue.
Dhavalikar is clearly a political animal and this U-turn has more to do with coalition compulsions than any major change of stand on grants. But the decision will have a positive impact only if grants to English schools continue without any hindrance (and that should not be an issue any longer).
The real issue however is to be aware of certain ground realities and the needs of children, coupled with an immediate injection of funds and infrastructure to improve schools.
The BBSM’s politics has not addressed this at any stage. Now when BBSM’s Subhash Velingkar says 543 schools will have to shut down in four years, he is missing the wood for the trees. These schools, with less than 40 students will shut down because there are simply not enough parents sending their children to Marathi or Konkani schools. This is not a sign of parents moving away from education in the mother tongue, but simply because the schools are not in a condition to conduct any activity which resembles education. Moreover, parents of modest means are willing to spend on private education and increasingly in English to prepare their children for a future.
Therefore, it is infrastructure and not language which needs to be the focus of education in Goa. Isn’t it appalling that close to a lakh of students wait for uniforms, books and umbrellas as the education season and the monsoon season are well underway.
Isn’t it a shame that only five schools in Goa have headmasters, with primary teachers forced to carry out administrative functions of a headmaster, which takes time away from teaching. Look at the state of school buildings. Most do not even have proper toilet facilities or water.
Schools are in no position to maintain even the basic standards to entitle them be called educational institutions. And here we have the BBSM getting into a political battle feeling ‘betrayed’.
Those who have the right to feel betrayed in this land of ours are thousands of children and their parents, who after 56 years of ‘liberation’ do not even get a decent primary education from the state. They have the right to feel betrayed and the state has a solemn duty to address this and remove this feeling of betrayal forthwith.
As far as language is concerned, hopefully this coalition government including the MGP realises this. Education is very serious isue and it involves the future of children. And it is parents, and parents alone who have the right and responsibility to decide in which language their children should learn and get educated.
Moreover when so-called social movements like the BBSM morph into political entities by proxy, they lose all moral ground to pontificate on the future of children. And that should and will; be the last word on this subject.
