Team Herald
PANJIM: Maintaining that he would stand by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s decision on the Medium of Instruction (MoI), Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza on Tuesday said the government should give freedom to parents to decide on the MoI for their children at primary level.
“I feel the government should give freedom to parents to decide what should be the medium of education for their kids. Let it be parents’ choice and not the government’s,” D’Souza told media persons.
“However, I will stand by the decision that my Chief Minister will take,” added the Deputy Chief Minister.
D’Souza’s statement comes after his cabinet colleague, Minister Rajendra Arlekar, said the government decision to give grants to English medium primary schools was wrong and should be withdrawn.
“It is his opinion. I cannot change it. But as far as I am concerned, I feel parents are the best to decide what medium their children should learn in,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
“Here there is democracy, we cannot impose anything on anyone. We need to respect the choice of parents,” he said claiming that ‘education from primary to high school should be in one single language’.
The Deputy Chief Minister is also not in favour of introducing and passing of the MoI policy in the Assembly.
The BJP-led government, through a cabinet decision, continued giving the grants to 127 Diocesan schools, a decision rejected by pro-Marathi and Konkani lovers.
