PANJIM: It’s election year and the Parsekar government has decided not to antagonise its tried and tested support base. Bowing to big brother RSS and the furious BBSM demanding withdrawal of grants for English schools, a cash-strapped government has decided to spend another Rs 19 crore as a straight cash payout to students opting for Marathi and Konkani at the primary level. This is in addition to the one time grant of Rs 12 lakh and an annual grant of Rs 1 lakh for five years, those schools get any way.
A back of the envelope calculation has revealed that the number of Marathi schools far outnumber Konkani schools, a telling reflection of how the State language Konkani has been dominated by Marathi in terms of the sheer number of schools. Hence of the Rs 19 crore cash payout to students of these schools, Marathi students will get over Rs 15 crore leaving a little over Rs 3 crore for those opting for Konkani as their Medium of Instruction.
The number of students with Marathi as their MoI is 31,359 of which 20,394 are in government primary schools, 10,965 in aided primary schools. With each getting Rs 400 per month, come rain shine or holidays, the payout is Rs 15.05 crore.
By contrast, Konkani appears to be a poor cousin. The number of students in primary schools with Konkani as their MoI, is five times less than those with Marathi. There are 1151 in government primary schools, 5413 in aided primary schools and those in unaided primary schools amount to 93 taking the total to 6557 students whose MoI at the primary level is Konkani. The spend on them is Rs 3.19 crore.
The Marathi and Konkani lobby totally gets it. “The Budget is to make the anti-English groups happy. It is a welcome move that the Konkani/Marathi medium primary schools are taken on priority list of the government. But this does not mean that we will withdraw our original demand. There would be unrest till the government withdraws grants to Diocesan-backed schools,” a BBSM member told Herald.
Interestingly, while the announcement is equivalent to a notification owing to the statement made on the floor of the House, the Forum for Rights of Children’s Education (FORCE) demand continues to hang in balance.
“We have exposed this government long back and proved to the people of Goa that it cannot be trusted. We did not trust their verbal assurance but they cannot be trusted on its written assurance also. Does Goa deserve such a government again?” FORCE Convener Savio Lopes said in a conversation with Herald. He asked the government to stop playing politics in the name of education.
Lopes wonders how the amount of Rs 400 was calculated “Was there any study conducted? What if the requirement is more than Rs 400 per student? Will the money be given to schools or students? We want a clarification from the CM,” he stated adding, “The Budget has endorsed FORCE’s stand that the government is not for poor. The government is attempting to stop the poor from getting better education of their choice.”
Meanwhile the Chief Minister in his reply to the starred LAQ 003C tabled by Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco confirmed that the cabinet decision of 6/6/2012 confirmed vide circular dated 18/06/2012 is the existing education policy which stated that “minority/certain institutions” imparting Konkani/Marathi education prior to June 10, 2011 and then shifted to English would receive grants. However, these schools have been kept out of the cash incentive given in this budget to students in schools with Marathi and Konkani as their MoI.
Very importantly in a cabinet meeting on 02/07 2014 minority/certain institutions was changed to “in view of the constitutions provisions to minority institutions they will be permitted the choice of any language as their MoI. Provided they had bilingual text books. These schools would be eligible for grants as per the cabinet note.
So clearly and cleverly non-minority (or Church aided) schools opting for English were kept out of the ambit of grants. This importantly hasn’t been highlighted. The same note in its last line stated, “The cabinet decision should be effectively reflected in acts and rules at the earliest.” From July 2014 to March 2016, this cabinet decision hasn’t found its way in acts and rules.
