Friday, February 6, 2009

Goa's faulty education system baffling

The language issue in Goa seems to have succeeded in blinding our leaders with blinkers which only horses deserved. Its a case of a dim-witted education system prevalent in the state as a direct fallout of a pseudo romance with local languages.

While the universal language of the world is English, our state of Goa, a world tourist destination where lakhs of tourists visit every year, is wedded to its stubborness of patronising regional languages Konkani and Marathi to be the medium of instruction at the primary level upto the fourth standard.

Presently only the schools which impart education in these two languages are allowed government grants for their functioning while the English medium schools are denied such grants. The result of this has been well damaging. While it has made the life of the common man expensive, in their bid to impart English education to their children paying exorbitant fees in English schools, the ones who have reconciled to the konkani and Marathi mediums have found it extremely difficult for their children to switch over to the English medium in the Vth standard.

While retaining the regional language mediums if they so wish to, the government of Goa should show its magnanimity and mere sense, in understanding the far reaching benefits of imparting education in the English medium and allow the parents to decide which medium of instruction they wish to choose for their children. Let the parents make their own choice.

By all means make the regional language a compulsory subject in the curriculum, but do not force the medium of instruction on unwilling throats to further your stale political ambitions.

It is a known fact that while the policy of the government of Goa is towards supporting grants for schools with a medium of regional languages, our legislative leaders in Goa, who supported this doctrine vociferously, actually prefer to send their children to expensive private schools with English medium.

Preach one thing and do exactly the opposite. What an example to set.

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