Dears, At last, a thread that is of some use to the "development" dabate in Goa. We need infrastructure and human resource at appropriate levels.
In the Goa Legislative Assembly the statistics came tumbling out. A hundred odd schools [Govt. Primary Schools or GPS]without electricity to light up the class rooms during cloudy days in monsoons, almost two hundred GPS without source of water fro drinking, as many schools without urinals or toilets for students or staff. There are schools without teachers or one teacher for all the four classes [Std.I to IV] and schools without even ten students in four classes. The PTA of one school recently agitated as the school did not have an English teacher for the last eight years and the drop out rate was increasing as knowledge of English is tested from Std.III onwards. A teacher was forcibly transferred to the GPS and she promptly went on leave of absence. The other mess is that from 1992, village schools teach Marathi and/or Konkani up to Std.IV and then shift to English medium of instruction in Std.V resulting in high failure rate. It has widened the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" as the ones who are not proficient in English do not have jobs later in life. The first batch that struggled with this system has graduated from college 10+2+3 this year. Most of those who have reached professional colleges are from English medium city schools or those with parents who know English well. Increasingly, parents are shifting to speak English with their children who learn Antruzi Konkani in in Archdiocesan schools in order to get admission in the English Secondary school section. The real gainer in the system are the English medium private schools. GPS are shutting shop even in rural areas as there are few takers for Konkani and marathi in the Global era of English. DSE Konkani medium schools are next on the hit list and it is already shifting to ICSE format in a few places. Talent must be nurtured. Infrastructure must include appropriate policies and financial support for the good ...not the rhetoric! Cyberage ....or now Edunet... is a good scheme. The Rajiv Gandhi initiated Navodaya schools in every district of India has been a pace setter for new standards. An example was available in every district of what a school must be. Quite a few have followed the good example ..... thoughnot in a GPS. Pedagogy is a little worse than pedology ...it is almost mental paedophilia, and quite as sadistic. Mog asundi Miguel Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:35:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Mario Goveia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Goanet] People more important than infrastructure -NarayanMurthy To: goanet@lists.goanet.org Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Samir Kelekar wrote: > When Digambar means development, he means infrastructure. Here, Narayan Murthy says that talent is anyday more important than infrastructure. What is the point of the big buildings if duds are going to learn in them? > Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:51:20 +0530 From: "Philip Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Murthy is only echoing what IBM's chief said years ago: Take all IBM infrastructure but leave its people and IBM will return to its former glory. The Japanese companies also laid great store by their "valued members" and worked assiduously to build corporate core competences for the long term survival and continuity of their firms. The lesson for Goa is that it needs both -- thinking and hard working people, on the one hand, as well as well thought out, well operated and well maintained infrastrucure (garbage, electricity, water supply, sewerage and drainage, air connectivity, local transport, roads etc etc) for the long haul, on the other. Both go hand in hand though on balance people would always have the edge as Murthy rightly implied. > Mario observes: > Samir, > Without the appropriate buildings and teachers and modern equipment even the talent may become duds:-)) Like a broken clock even politicians like Digambar and Monserrate can be right sometimes:-)) > In my opinion, both talent and infrastructure are equally essential. Saying that one is more important than the other is like saying an automobile engine is more important than the car it is designed to drive. The car is not going anywhere without its engine, and the engine is going nowhere without the car. > A government, too, should focus on improving the infrastructure it is responsible for, not just roads and buildings but things like security and law enforcement > There was a darn good reason for the brain drain. It was called Fabian socialism, which drew its inspiration from Marxism. Once Manmohan Singh and other enlightened leaders began to chip away at the socialist obstacles that were in place, i.e. the oppressive economic infrastructure, the economy revived, tax compliance continues to improve, the brain drain began to slow down and, if the improvements continue, it MAY eventually reverse itself. Up to a point. Because India still has a very long way to go to catch up after all those wasted 50 years that caused the brain drain. > "A socialist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-socialist is someone who understands Marx." - adapting and paraphrasing Ronald Reagan. Share files, take polls, and make new friends - all under one roof. Go to http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups/