Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar saying in a public forum in Cuncolim that the establishment of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in the town will transform that town into an education hub is yet another statement that lacks understanding and planning. This government has turned adept at making statements and promises but never following up on them. One institute of higher learning in a town does not transform a place into an educational hub. If that were true than Sanquelim that has the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), or Sancoale that boasts of the Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) Goa campus, would have by now turned the villages into education hubs. It hasn’t happened in either case because the government hasn’t been able to provide the infrastructural, administrative and logistic support required to transform an area into an education hub.
The slow pace at which the government works is visible in the case of the NIT whose first batch of students has graduated and it still remains housed in a temporary building within the campus of the Goa Engineering College (GEC) at Farmagudi. Four years after its inception the NIT does not even have a building of its own and construction on the infrastructure is yet to begin. Yet, the chief minister speaks of turning Cuncolim into an educational hub. Further evidence of the government’s tardiness in educational matters is Goa losing out on the commencement of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) this academic year. The Centre wants to start IITs in every State and Goa was selected for this in the first batch of States but it was the State’s inability to identify land for the IIT that made it lose this splendid opportunity.
It is against this background of sloppiness and tardiness that we have the chief minister speak of Cuncolim turning into an education hub. This is the first that the State hears of the government speaking of an educational hub and it is done in an offhand manner. Just how does the government propose to make this possible? Is there a plan that has not yet been made public?
An educational hub, as Herald has pointed out in the past, would be the best thing to happen to Goa in terms of development and infrastructure. But it needs to be planned and not merely spoken about at functions to score a few brownie points. And the plans have to prioritized. First is the land for the IIT, followed by the separate and state-of-the-art camapus for the NIT. The Union Human Resources Minister has written to the State chief minister earlier this year expressing displeasure over the Goa government dragging its feet on the question of land for the IIT. Let the government prove its sincerity and seriousness by putting these two institutes on the fast track and only then can the administration begin to draw up plans for an educational hub. Because it is from here that lessons will be learnt and from here that the government can look at other institutes that would be feasible and viable in the State. For, if the IIT and the NIT are treated fairly and with all the respect they deserve, then only will other institutes of higher learning deign to come to Goa.
Goa, therefore, needs to act fast on the IIT and the NIT rather than merely talk about educational hubs. At the same time, the government has to take into consideration that an educational hub will not only benefit youth from Goa, but bring in talented and brilliant students from across India, and abroad, to the State. Admissions should be based purely on merit so that the best minds come to Goa to study. This should not be seen as a drawback, but as an advantage given that it would lead to heightened competition among the students and local students would benefit as it would inspire them to work harder and prepare them to face the real competitive world.
