Team Herald
PANJIM: They came from all over the State. Setting aside their work for the afternoon and any other tasks that had been scheduled for the day, parent in their thousand gathered at Panjim’s Azad Maidan to be part of the decision that would give their children a ‘future.’
Alex, who has a child in a school in Siolim, was among those who descended from the bus that brought him to Panjim and then walked to the Maidan. It was time to decide on whether to end the strike that began on July 27, or continue it. The strike was against the government’s inaction to amend the Goa Education Act incorporating grant-in-aid to English medium primary schools.
Holding banners that read ‘Why this delay? Act Now!’ and ‘Do or Die; Now or Never,’ parents thronged the Maidan to be a part of the decision making. One parent at the meeting said she was glad to be a part of the decision, “as I now feel like I too have a voice,” she said.
The voice was loud and unanimous. The pandal erected at Azad Maidan was not enough to accommodate the thousands that came from Quepem, Salcete, Mormugao, Bicholim and other talukas.
“It is important for us to be a part of this because it is we who are going to decide the future of our children. If we stay quiet today, our children will suffer tomorrow,” Alex told Herald.
This was the opinion voiced among most of the parents gathered at Azad Maidan who were urged to adopt peaceful means of resolving the issue as FORCE representatives Premanand Naik and Cyntia Fernandes constantly asked the crowds to be peaceful.
Fernandes spoke for many gathered at Azad Maidan by saying that FORCE secretary Savio Lopes had stood his ground and that it was now time for the gathering to decide.
