PANJIM: A discussion on the quality of mid-day meals turned out to be discourse on parenting, especially for those who have children in posh private city schools, which are incidentally not connected with the scheme. In the middle of his Assembly speech in reply to cut motion on demands for grants on education, he said, “In villages, children do not get breakfast in the morning because they cannot afford it”, and then added, “while in cities because parents party all night and cannot give their children breakfast”. He even made a casual reference to a specific private school in Panjim, where children of the most influential parents in Goa study.
He also insisted that ‘there is nothing seriously wrong’ in the wake of a handful of food poisoning cases in certain schools. “There is a lot of hype about such incidents. There is nothing seriously wrong. If six to seven incidents of mild poisoning have occurred, does that mean Goa is unsafe? However, I don’t want even these cases,” he said, speaking on the floor of the House.
“Nobody talks about more than one thousand safe deliveries but a handful of mid-day meal poisoning cases are hyped. There could be rivalry (among the self help groups entrusted the responsibility of mid-day meals).”
Meanwhile, on the Medium of Instruction bill, he said that it would be tabled in the Assembly on Monday and only minority schools would be allowed to choose their medium of instruction subject to them compulsorily using bilingual text books at primary school level.
Taking a dig at those who support on English language, he said they may speak the foreign language well but they are not good in correctly writing the language. “I have seen the drafting of letters, they can’t even write four words of English correctly,” he said pointing at some legislators.
He also said that grant-in-aid will be a fixed percentage of salary from the academics. Teachers will soon be provided e-Tablets, rationalising that working on PC has become a ‘necessity like driving (a car).’
The government will financially help unemployed youth, who are willing to purchase buses to rent for Bal Rath, under the Dr Varghese Kurian Scheme. A scheme will be notified in eight days.
u MoI bill will be tabled on Monday
u Only minority schools will be allowed to choose their medium of instruction
u Compulsorily use of bilingual text books at primary school level
