Hi, I'm a bit confused with the seeming contradiction in the post sent by Dominic Fernandes. He writes " During the Portuguese regime only bhattkars' children ....could go to school. If tenants sent their children....." And in the last para he says"Do you think Goans would have achieved the present day literacy rate if the Portuguese had continued to rule...." Now my first point is, Who is to be blamed? The Portuguese or the Goan bhattkars? In what way is the Portuguese government to be blamed if the bhattkars forced the tenants and their children stopped the children from going to school? My next point is How many Goans at tht point of time were really interested in education? And lastly I understand from my reading that the Portuguese did make an attempt to spread education at least at the primary level (count the number of escolas primarias in the villages)but our own people at that time did not value education because they did not know its value then. Secondly as you rightly pointed out the bhattkars were the main culprits for keeping many of our people ignorant and illiterate so that they could oppress them and cheat them royally. So it was Goans v/s Goans and it will always be Goans v/s Goans. We are made that way and in that sense we are unique according to many I've come across. Let's not blame others unnecessarily.If at all we have to condemn somebody then it is these bhattkars who were the major obstacles in the educational progress of our people. Richard Cabral