A NEW LANGUAGE: Let MoI be everyone’s choice

Who would have thought that the turn of 2016 would see the MGP emerge as perhaps the most reasonable voice on the issue of grants based on the Medium of Instruction. With the BJP caught in a mess of its own making, managing to displease all as it dithers and hides over taking a final decision on the issue, the MGP’s fresh round of statements have caught the attention of those who are paying attention including Herald. Almost unnoticed by other media, the PWD minister and MGP supremo Sudhin Dhavlikar said at a function in Margao on Dec 28 that grants should be given for all schools (in Konkani, Marathi and English). What he said was very significant. While he and his party have maintained that primary education should be in the mother tongue, the Dhavlikars have moved from their earlier position of rigidity, when they were speaking in the voice of the BBSM, to one of accommodation. The MGP’s view now is that if grants are indeed given for English as the MOI in primary schools, it should be for all schools, and not just Church schools. This is matter of huge significance since there can be no quarrel with this argument. In fact the MGP has actually taken the issue into a new zone of acceptance. The Forum for the Rights of Children in Education (FORCE) should ideally endorse this. The unthinkable would then happen when the MGP and FORCE can speak the same language. The crux of the MGP’s argument is interesting. MGP president and Priol MLA Deepak Dhavlikar, maintains the hard line stating that the medium of instruction should be in the mother tongue. “MOI for primary education should be in either Marathi or Konkani and, “This is not only my opinion but also of MGP,” he maintains. Dhavlikar opines that the following portion Section 7 B (5), a part of the amendment to the Goa School Education (Amendment) Act should not be included. This portion states “Provided that the State Government may consider providing grants to minority schools having English as a medium of instruction and imparting education at the primary level subject to compliance with other provisions of this Act”. However he significantly qualifies this. He told Herald Review that he still is willing to live and deal with a situation if grants are actually given. It’s a mature, measured and of course surprising line of reasoning considering this is coming from the MGP. He says that if the Goa School Education (Amendment Act) 2014 is passed, it should be common to all educational institutions and not just minority institutions. There should not be one law for some institution and another for other institutions”, he said. However, he also reiterated the MGP’s point of view. The MGP’s pragmatic shift is therefore far more acceptable than the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch group which is sounding like a stuck record which is completely out of sync with present day realities. As Deepak Dhavlikar explained “What Sudin’s statement meant was that if grants are given, it should be to all schools and not only selective ones,” he asserted. This paradigm shift is due to a variety of factors. The MGP is looking to move out of its bastions of Ponda taluka and look at seats in Mormugao (Dabolim) and even Bardez. It needs to be more inclusive. At the same time the MGP realizes that a large number of parents who want English as the medium of instruction for their children are from the bahujan samaj cutting across religious barriers. MGP understands therefore that a rigid pro mother tongue and anti English line (which many feel is a brahminical line) will not endear the party to the bahujan samaj constituents. THE BJP HAS LOST THE PLOT The BJP has got trapped in a web. It has allowed itself to be pressurised by the BBSM, which includes some hard core RRS acolytes as well as hardliners whose views are trapped in a time capsule , with no relation with today’s realities. Recently, the BJP state president Vinay Tendulkar was on record stating BJP had not diluted its stand MOI saying that the party, both at the Centre and in the state, was consistent that the medium of instruction for primary schools should be in the regional language. “We are just continuing to give grants to English medium schools, something that was started by the previous government. At the same time, we have said that new schools with English as a medium of instruction will not be given grants,” Tendulkar said. The language of the BJP continues to be the language of the BBSM. Sanquelim MLA Pramod Sawant, who is also a member of the Select committee of MLA’s looking at solving the MOI logjam, fully supports the BBSM, which opposes grants to Church-run schools. At the same time the BJP is completely silent about giving grants to other government schools which seek to offer English, even though it knows that this will not let the Church claim monopoly over education as well as ensure that government schools get better enrollment and improve. “I am confident the party will take a positive stand on the issue and I will express my views in the party meeting”, he claims. The BJP also took a dig at the Indian National Congress, questioning why its general secretary, Digvijaya Singh, had supported the move to offer grants to English medium primary schools when the Congress had failed to do so in Karnataka where it was in power. “I urge GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro to tell Kerala and Karnataka governments to give grants to English language schools as ordered by the court,” Tendulkar had said. The BJP doesn’t realise that potshots and digs at other parties, will not win them parents. It has still not woken up to the fact that its political strategy on MOI is weak and will cost then many seats in 2017.