MARGAO: Making sure his punches in favour of the mother tongue are felt in Salcete, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was all praise for schools that opted for medium of instruction (MOI) in Konkani / Marathi. He was speaking at a round-table conference on education organized by a media group at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao on Saturday.
Parsekar said that based on past experience, it was clear the students who had done their primary education in their mother tongue had excelled in higher studies. He further said that more parents were now inclined to send their wards to schools whose MOI was a local language, and the results of the students were encouraging as well. He also said students who had done their primary in such schools had performed excellently in the recently-concluded SSC examinations.
Giving examples of schools in his home town, Parsekar said there was an English primary school, and initially, there was hesitancy from parents to send their children to a primary school that had recently opened. Parsekar, who is associated with this school, spoke about how the school started doing well later and got more students, and how parents were satisfied with the output. He added that what was most important was the quality of education and professionalism on part of the teachers and the environment created. It was only when the schools provided such facilities that parents were confident of sending their children to such schools.
It was further suggested that there was a need to make pre-primary education part of the formal education system to help inculcate basic skills at a young age, and which would be important for the student later. There was also a debate on the need to bring pre-primary, primary, high schools and higher secondary schools under one roof to help impart holistic education and also deal with one set of administration as opposed to multiple departments.
Parsekar also sympathized with the plight of Anganwandi workers and stressed upon their contribution in the lives of young children, especially those in rural hinterland areas. He said the Anganwadi staff, however, did not get adequate payment and that their salaries should be reasonable.
Parseker also criticized the former government for failing to set up a State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on the lines of NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training). He questioned the delay in forming SCERT in Goa even though NCERT had been accepted in 1986.
The SCERT is the authority to decide on the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education in Goa.
He then praised his government for doing the needful and ensuring that educational infrastructure was being created in the right direction. He also spoke about how as per the NCERT norms there was a requirement to have a Diploma in Education (D.ED) in each district and that Goa has such two D.ED institutes.
Parsekar concluded by agreeing that there was a need to prepare a roadmap for education in Goa, especially at the school level, and the state would only benefit if the quality of education was improved along with infrastructure and facilities as this would produce better students.
Director of Education Gajanan Bhat, deputy director of education Ramkrishna Samant, educationist Pandurang Nadkarni, and several heads of schools and educational institutes were present at the event.
