Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar had established many government schools where the poor and the rich alike used to study along side. But nowadays with so many private schools mushrooming all over, the poor people in the state find it difficult to provide the same facilities to their children. This rich-poor gap leaves a void in the government schools where the enrollment gets fewer and fewer with every passing year. This has also resulted in the closure of the government schools with very few or no students getting enrolled.
Seven government schools in Ponda taluka have already been closed before the academic year began. Of the 107 existing schools some are already facing the risk being closed down.
Rich parents can afford to send their children to Private Primary schools or English Medium Schools. This has marginally reduced the number of students in government schools forcing their closure. Many economically backward parents cannot pay the hefty fees this private schools charge and are forced to send their children to the government schools. These parents are now afraid that more government schools may be closed due to lack of students. They feel that the government must take interest in safeguarding these existing schools. Some of them say that closure of these schools may deprive their children the basic education.
Even though the erstwhile governments had established hundreds of primary schools in the villages, they failed to upgrade them to secondary schools, perhaps due to no demand from the villagers. Taking this opportunity the private institutions that were running Secondary Schools opened their own primary schools in English medium which attracted many students. Students to these schools increased perhaps due to the parents’ desire of getting their wards pick up English in the early stages. This, however, has affected the government primary schools which slowly saw fewer students getting enrolled every year.
Parents feel there may be different reasons why the government schools close down. Some say that it is due to the negligence on the part of the government which neglected in hiring good quality teachers. Also they say that the government did not hire enough number of teachers required to teach the students. This in turn allowed the private institutions start their own schools which have mushroomed all over the Ponda taluka.
With the growth of industries and the income of parents increasing due to more government jobs at hand the trend of sending their children to private schools has grown.
Some sources said that some well established and government run primary and secondary schools in Davshirem, Usgao and Savoi Verem are being avoided by students because of lack of facilities and government negligence. The schools premises are getting bad to worse due to this, the sources said.
However, economically poor parents still consider Government Primary schools as great support to them since they provide free education. They want the government to upgrade the schools so that they match with the quality of education provided in private schools. They say that they will not be able to afford the high fees charged by the private institutions if the government schools are closed down.
Recently the government closed a primary school at Shiroda with only five students enrolled despite parents protesting for many days.
The Government Primary Schools started by the late chief minister to provide education to Bahujans who were downtrodden led the facility of education on the doorstops of rural Goa. But with changing times, and many villagers getting rich the scenario has changed in the educational field with parents affording to pay from their pocket towards their education.
Some parents feel that government schools lack to provide quality education forcing the poor to obtain loans and send the children to private institutions. The migrant labour has also suffered due to the closure of govt schools.
Some parents feel that beginning to study in their mother tongue Konkani or Marathi does not affect their studies in English.
Viraj Sapre of Ponda said he studied in Marathi medium and commenced English at fifth standard but secured first class in SSC.
The government has introduced incentives to students by giving Rs 400 to every student and even provided free raincoats, but there are few takers, say sources.
According to sources in the Education Department office at Ponda, government primary schools in the Taluka are reducing every year. Three years ago the number of Primary Schools was 140. This year the number has reduced to 113 with seven schools closed for lack of students.
