Team Herald
MARGAO: Making its intention clear to deliberate on the inclusion of Konkani in Roman script in schools, Global Konknni Forum (GKF) said that the new National Educational Policy (NEP) does not specify that only the official language must be taught and added that it plans to explore practical solutions to incorporate Roman script into the educational curriculum.
GKF believes that the NEP’s guidelines offer flexibility for introducing multiple scripts, including Konkani in Roman script, and aims to advocate for this inclusion.
GKF president Kennedy Afonso, announced that his association plans to meet the board of directors of Diocesan Schools to discuss practical solutions for introducing Konkani in Roman script into the curriculum.
He said that GKF plans to collaborate with the Government of Goa and the Education Board to facilitate this initiative. Afonso assured that GKF would offer full cooperation and support to help make the teaching of Konkani in Roman script a reality.
“GKF would like to state that the new National Educational Policy ( NEP) ensures that it is not imposing any language on anyone, but simply suggests use of house language, mother tongue, or local language as medium of instruction, or one of the ‘three’ languages. Nowhere does it say that only the official language should be taught in schools,” he claimed.
He said that with this, the NEP has simply opened the doors for both public and private educational institutions to teach in any language, practical for the students.
“Bearing the above factors in mind , GKF would humbly request the Diocesan School Board in Goa, to seek permission from the Government of Goa, to at least allow all Diocesan schools to teach or introduce Konkani in Roman Script, in a phased manner starting with Class I from next year onwards, upto the Class X,” he added.
He said this will be a big service to the children of the Catholic community which has been deprived for the last 36 years, of learning their mother tongue Konkani in Roman script, which is a script of their choice. Devanagari is imposed upon them, and this goes against the new NEP.
GKF further said that with over 40 gram sabhas passing resolutions in their respective village panchayats, demanding equal status for Roman Script in the Official Language Act (OLA), shows that the people prefer Roman Script over Devanagari.
“GKF states that this demand is basically made by the Catholic community, which uses Roman Script in all religious liturgies, tiatrs, songs and cultural traditions,” said Afonso.
He claimed that children from the Catholic community also find learning Konkani in Devanagari script is difficult, as it’s a mismatch from the house language and school script, and this affects their academic performance. Parents need their children to learn Konkani in Roman script, as new studies suggest that children learn and grasp better if taught in the house language or mother tongue, as rightly stipulated in the NEP.
Meanwhile, GKF appealed to the people of Goa and Roman script supporters for its first public meeting to demand equal status for Roman Script, on Sunday, August 18, at 3.30 pm at Cardinal Gracias Hall, Navelim.