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This month's Goanet operations sponsored by Mrs. Daisy Faleiro If you would like to sponsor Goanet's operations contact: Herman Carneiro - [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Selma and Sunith, This ricochet of email is is not serving the discussion on Goa's educational system. If you pick up isolated incidences or specific characters we will get nowhere and we be arguing until we are blue in the face. Yes there are many young men in the coastal villages of Goa who hang around at the tinto waiting to get overseas or hang around at the shacks while the non Goan boys do all the work. In the meantime there are many good jobs in 5 star hotels that could have been ours if our young men had the education especially as we have many hotel management colleges whose graduates are accepted by hotels in the UK etc. So has our education system failed them? Probably. Because they prefer arduous short term stints in the Gulf/UK and then the return to bleak futures mostly saturated with alcohol. But I think this is mostly in families that have not grasped that education can be a long term investment mainly because they have not had the luxury of one. And no one has told them it can be so. It seems like our leaders, priests and the local intelligentsia us included have failed to impart the formula that has worked for us. And Selma, I don't know why you would even think that you and your family were lumped with them. Did you not tell us that your parents were an educated couple who worked hard overseas and gave you opportunities and privileges that you and your sibling now enjoy? Just like many of us 'privileged sons and daughters of Goa'? Education can level the playing field only if we allow it to and only if we are aware that it can be so. Not all Westerners have figured that our either. Our town of Boothbay Harbor has no immigrants and a very large population of pretty comfortable lobster fishermen thanks to tax benefits and subsidies. Almost all of our house taxes (and with monstrous waterfront properties it all adds up) go to the school which at least to me from Marina English High School, Verna is an excellent facility with very small classes, sports and extracurricular activities. Truly the kids are pampered. But who graduates from high school (Std XII) and goes on to a good college? Only the kids of scientists and non Mainers. The lobstermen's kids 'gradate' (no one fails!) with poor scores, are barely able to read/write but have a job with their dad and the permissions to fish which nowadays are worth a lot. Unfortunately, the lobster populations are expected to collapse soon. In the urban areas its no different - the US government has pumped millions of the tax payer's dollars into programs that have shown very little return. Kids from poor families are still not able to read and write and are not equipped for any job barring waiting tables and with the current trend of jobs going overseas its a big problem. However we have 'Teach for America' that has worked and some other programs that I think could work for Goa. We should talk about those! Also please refer to my previous email where I talk about young college graduates who could contribute to outreach with the exceptional projects that they undertake. Helga > Let me say however there is a big disconnect between > what the privileged sons and daughters of Goa can reap > as reward and what the masses can look forward to. A > good education system levels the playing field. It > makes available not just opportunity but also > aspiration, motivation and the inclination to climb > higher and reach further.