School Manager Fr Lino Florindo told Herald that he was very satisfied that the issue had finally been resolved on Friday. He also expressed his gratitude to local MLA Subhash Phaldessai, government authorities, church authorities, Caritas Goa Director Fr Maverick Fernandes and Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Chairperson Sameera Kazi for extending their full support to the school.
“There may only be a few parents unhappy with the school’s decision to continue education to the 23 children of the convent. We hope to take them into confidence and persuade them to reconsider their decision. After all, they are families belonging to our parish and we don’t want our community to be divided,” said Fr Florindo.
“But if all our efforts to persuade them fail and if these few parents are still aggrieved, then they are free to take their children out of our school,” said Fr Florindo.
The school manager also hoped that authorities would take proactive steps to educate people by addressing similar concerns in other parts of the State.
“We hope that this unfortunate episode will be an eye-opener for all authorities to conduct awareness programmes all across the State, to emphasise the importance of fully integrating the lesser fortunate children in schools and in society at large,” Fr Florindo added.
He informed that the school functioned normally on Saturday, with full student attendance.
When asked if any parent had sought the withdrawal of their child and had applied for the school leaving certificate on Saturday, Fr Florindo replied that one parent had sought school leaving certificate, but was told to come on Monday.
