Hey Roland!While I do endorse your views and opinion expressed, I wish to share my own experiences being portuguese educated having born much before the invasion/liberation of Goa followed by Indian system of Education.The system of education in Goa was unique. The teachers were well qualified and graduated with special training in imparting quality education. The Portuguese Government School Teachers had to be trained and qualified professionals. It was not instructions (instrucao) alone but quality education. Today what we have is only the instructions with lack of proper education. One can well recall how the teacher would impart the quality education including how to behave in the class, keep the class room clean at all times (civic sense), respect the elders, how to cross the roads. Great importance was given to proverbs pasted all around the classroom and students were drilled to ensure that they put it into practice. The education was all round. A student of Segundo Grao was equipped to take up the job of a Clerk with efficiency and quality service. Some of today's Graduates from the Colleges cannot even draft simple job applications. Priority was given to writing (caligrafia) and drawing. Evaluation was done based on written and oral exams. Even the private tutors were fully equipped to impart quality education to make all rounder. One can write in volumes on the same. Wilson CoelhoMessage: 4 Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 11:57:33 -0400 From: "roland.francis" <roland.fran...@ymail.com> To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <goanet@lists.goanet.org> Subject: Re: [Goanet] Portuguese education Message-ID: <iu5p9sql9umrwsrcyjoxreq6.1396366533...@email.android.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
While I absolutely agree with what the WSJ is saying, there is a separation of the effect of Portuguese education when you talk about Goa. Whatever newspapers or VM says, from my own experience I know that ?Portuguese education in Goa was of the highest quality. This from an individual (myself) who had no connection with any Goa education. You can fault the Portuguese with not making it easily accessible not only in terms of cost but also in terms of social classes but definitely not in terms of quality. Not that the British in India were perfect in this respect but they were that much better.? What I am saying is that the British India educated gentleman or professional was no better equipped for a good future life than was his Portuguese Goa counterpart.? Now coming to modern day Portugal yes, the rate of educated youth is the lowest in Europe but that is due as much to the inherently lower value assigned to education which in turn was fed by economic opportunity in menial labor available to them in the rest of that continent. In Goa two forces met and blessed the people. The high ideal of education inherent in the Goan people and the high quality of education when available. I would have liked a third blessing to have come into play - that of easy access - but alas for the wishes of mice and men, to twist a famous phrase. In India today, quality is absolutely lacking except in elite academia and and access too is so highly competitive that it is virtually unavailable in many urban centers and even more rural outbacks. Suicide is an acceptable risk that parents take. That never happened in Portuguese Goa, though it might be not all totally fair to compare different ages as VM has done. Roland. Toronto.
