It is the long standing stand of this Party too that Primary Education in Goa must be in mother tongue and this has been Re: in the Party’s permanent Manifesto, the Road Map for Goa released in 2005.
If the above is the stand of Mr Shripad Naik, and if he feels that the stand of his Government in Goa is wrong to extend Government grants to Primary Schools with MoI as English [English not being considered as the mother tongue of Goans], then it is amply clear that it is also wrong on the part of Goa Government to extend Government grants to Primary Schools with MoI as Marathi, for the simple reason that ‘Marathi’ is not the mother tongue of Goans, and like English Language, Goan kids ‘learn’ Marathi Language in Goa’s Primary Schools where the spoken and understood language of the Goan kids is Konkani and Konkani alone. Besides, ‘learning’ and ‘be instructed’ are two different things all together.
The stand taken by this Party is that it will make Konkani [both in Romi and Devanagri script] the MoI in Goa’s Primary Schools, and therefore, the Government grants shall be extended to only Primary Schools run by the Government as well as to those run by Private Individuals with MoI as Konkani only. By this measure, any Primary Schools with MoI as Marathi or English shall be disqualified to get government grants, as these languages do not qualify as Goa’s mother tongue.
However, considering the hard stand taken by BBSM that Primary Schools with MoI as English should not get Government grants, this Party makes it clear that if BBSM wants grants to Primary Schools with MoI as Marathi, then it must accept the proposal that Primary Schools with MoI as English shall also be extended Government grants. Let better sense prevail.
(The author is the General Secretary,
Goa Su-Raj Party-GSRP)
