So how does Goa’s Education model compare to Delhi’s model? The fact is although Goa has achieved one of the highest literacy in the Country of 88.7%, Goa has lagged behind when it comes to improving the facilities at schools across Goa.
Delhi students have a huge advantage because the government has allocated 24% of the State budget towards education whereas in Goa the government has allocated just 10% of its budget towards education.
MLA Reginald Lourenco, who had raised the issue of low budget allocation for Education, informed herald that the 10% which amounts to 2445 Cr includes all education including higher education and technical education. “The actual amount that reaches the schools is very less.”.
Do the Schools have Facilities?
All the schools around Goa have power supply and toilets, with is a significant achievement compared to other States in India. However, more than half the primary schools in Goa do not have their own playground.
The Government constructed the Cujira complex in order to decongest the city of Panjim and that all schools could share a common playground. A similar model is proposed in Dovorlim is yet to take off. Sources in the Education Department revealed that the project was pending because of Parrikar’s absence and the local opposition. “Till Parrikar settles the issue with the locals, the project is unlike to take off”, sources say.
While the government has renovated 319 schools till date, the government has not revealed any information about the facilities upgraded in these schools.
Number of Private schools which have not submitted their financial returns to the government 83 out of 132
Who is checking the shortage of Staff in Schools?
Has the absence of the education minister due to his health affected the recruitment process? Going by the statistics mentioned in an LAQ by MLA Prasad Gaonkar, it appears so. More than 300 teaching staff positions are vacant across Goa. But the number of teachers required could be much higher. According to Swati Kerkar, who heads many labour unions including those related to teaching staff of the education department, the ratio of students to teachers is much higher than what is reported. “The onus on sending the information about the students and teachers lies with the schools. There are schools which are reporting less number of students than the actual strength so that they don’t have to recruit new teachers. This has increased the burden on existing teachers”, she said.
According to official government statistics, there is one teacher for every 24 students in primary and secondary schools in Goa. In the case of Secondary schools, the figure drops to one teacher for every 21 students. Although these statistics look like a reasonable, it should be taken with a pinch of salt. The fact is in many Government primary schools, the number of students in a class is less than 10. For example, in Maina Curtorim Government primary school, there are a total of 15 students in the school. In Tanashi GPS, there are just 6 students and in Mukund GPS, Canacona there are just four students in the entire school.
“Nobody inspects these schools to check the real strength of the school. The Government does not want to hire sufficient teachers because the financial burden on the schools and the government will increase”, she claimed.
According to the Director of Education, the vacancies for the pending posts will be advertised soon in the coming weeks. However, he could not give an exact date for the recruitment.
However, many posts which are filled on a contract basis will still not have regular teachers. This is because according to the rules, a regular teacher must conduct a minimum of 24 lectures per week. If it’s less, then the post cannot be filled on a regular basis. However, many teachers working on contract or wage bases also do additional duties such as that of NSS in charge which is not counted as teaching. According to a School Principal, the posts can be regularised if Goa board recognises the NSS classes as lectures. That way more teachers can be recruited on a regular basis which will improve the quality of education by reducing the load on regular teachers, he said.
According to Reginald Lourenco, the government is not serious about the recruitment of teachers. “The Government has stated that they will not issue any more permissions to start BEd Colleges institutes. There are around 12000 teachers in primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary education. From where are we going to get new teachers to replace the existing ones when they retire?”, he questioned.
Assistant District Educational Inspectors (ADEIs)
The ADEI are the staff who have to inspect the schools on regular bases, on behalf of the Directorate of Education. These inspectors look after the work of administration, supervision, coordination, monitoring, etc. of at the Taluka level. These inspectors come under the Assistant Directors of Education in charge of the respective zones.
However, the number of ADIEs in goa are grossly inadequate. According to the Directorate of Education website, every block is supposed to have three or four ADIEs. The Government has appointed a total of 29 inspectors across Goa but is short of another 40 inspectors all 12 Talukas. Sources say that the existing ADEI do not have the time to monitor and inspect schools in Goa
What is Goa’s priority, school infrastructure or quality in education?
The Goa Government has focused on infrastructure and schemes in order to highlight its achievements in infrastructure. In contrast the Delhi government has focused on ensuring that every child knows to read and write instead of focusing on the syllabus.
For this academic year, the government has allocated 132 Crores to a new fund called “Education Development Fund” for repairs of educational institutes and schools under Integrated School Complex. Interestingly, there is only one such school complex in Goa at Cujira.
Is the Goa Government focused on improving the syllabus to bring our students on par with CBSE and other boards? No. Here again, Reginald Lourenco slammed the government for not upgrading the syllabus in the last 6 years. Instead, the Opposition has accused the government of distorting the Xth Standard history books and tainting it with the RSS agenda. Interestingly, there is no mention of any syllabus upgrade in the performance report.
Funds not utilised and thus returned in 2016-17
In 2016-17, the Directorate of Education returned Rs 217 Crores of funds that it had received under the major budget heads. There has been no performance audit of several of the schemes which have been implemented by the Government. Much of the fund which was meant to promote local language, computer literacy and improve the facilities in the school have remained unused in 2016-17
Private Schools flouting rules
Shockingly less than half of the private schools in Goa have taken approval for the fees they levy on students. 96 out of the 132 private schools in Goa have not filed their statement of fees and have not received approval for their fees. 83 out of 132 schools have not submitted their financial returns. The rest have submitted their returns either once or twice since their exception. This is a gross violation of Rule 19 of Goa School Education Act & Rules, 1986 which mandates that school has to submit a full statement of fees and charges and the approval of the Director has to be taken before levying the fees.
Herald asked the Director of Education whether he had issued any notice to the schools who had not submitted their fee statements to which the Director replied that he did not receive any complaint from any school parent. Herald brought to his notice that many parents hesitate to complain against the school for fear that their child will be targeted to which he responded by staying that only if there is a complaint the department takes action.
From the conversation, the conclusion that can be drawn is that the Department is not monitoring the fee structure of private schools. This is in stark contrast to the seriousness of Delhi Government, where 575 schools were directed to refund the excess fees charged by the schools.
Reversals of No-Fail Policy
The No-fail policy was a major problem for many schools since it had taken away the incentive of students to study. The schools have welcomed the recent decision by the Central Government to scrap the policy. However, this puts greater onus on the Goa Government to improve the education facilities and ensure that the syllabus us updated so that no student is left behind.
