It is refreshing to see that the approach towards education in Goa is finally showing signs of pragmatism where there is a great appreciation of ground realities. This will hopefully bring far more clarity to decision making in the education sector.
When speaking in the Assembly on education on Friday, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar actually said what no ruling party politician has admitted before. “The student strength of the government primary schools, both in Konkani and Marathi medium, has reduced as parents have shifted their wards from these schools to English medium primary schools.” While he also did say that in some areas government primary schools have competed with private primary schools, the underlying admission of the shift to English schools, can only be healthy for Goa. This will lead to ensuring that English medium primary schools get better support and grants and teachers, while at the same time the focus on ensuring that even remote primary schools with just one child are not shut down, if there is no other school within a one kilometer radius.
With these decisions, we are moving for the first time in years, towards a template in education which is effortlessly inclusive. But this must be sustained. The acceptance of the ground reality that there is indeed a shift to English medium schools of students, who were earlier getting education in Marathi and Konkani, will lead to two things. Firstly all English medium schools (majority of which are run by the Archdiocese) will continue to get grants and support, which in anyway has been promised. But we may slowly move towards a welcome situation where schools outside the ambit of the Archdiocese will also get a level playing field, without anyone thinking that that the base of Konkani and Marathi education is eroding or will be hampered.
One of the biggest impediments to the continuance of Marathi and Konkani primary education is the state of infrastructure of the schools. The decision to repair damaged vacant buildings and take unused buildings in the possession of the government to be restored for schools, will work towards slowing the exodus to other schools. The move to English medium primary schools is also due to better infrastructure, as much as due to the need to have a strong foundation in English.
Perhaps it is good for Goa that the heightened emotions, the agitations and the war of words has finally given way to an atmosphere where well thought out decisions can be taken without the threat of a deadline and an agitation, clouding decision making. It is also noticeable that the Forum for Rights of Children in Education (FORCE) batting for grants for English medium primary schools and the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), which hitherto insisted that grants to English medium primary schools should be stopped and denied, have maintained a dignified silence. The political avatar of the BBSM, the Goa Suraksha Manch, (GSM) has also decided to considerably lower their ante sensing that the issue, refreshingly, has moved out of the domain of politics and is firmly in the domain of where it should be- education.
The challenge is to let it remain this way and work towards an education universe where practical realities and parent’s needs are dovetailed into government decision making. Securing our children’s future is a bigger need than winning political battles.
