Re: [Goanet] Konkani should be the primary school medium - by F. Mousinho de Ataide

[Dr . Ferdinando dos Reis Falcão]

Fr. Mousinho wrote on ‘O Heraldo’ : “During the Portuguese era,
Christians did primary education in Portuguese and switched over to English in
Std V. Hindus did primary studies in Marathi, switched over to Portuguese and
then to English. Neither Christians nor Hindus suffered in the switch-over:
both acquired proficiency in English after the switch-over.”

My last post a reply to Sebastian Borges’ post was just to
enlighten him that the statement made by Fr. Mousinho was just a blatant LIE. It
would be incorrect to state that Fr. Mousinho is wrong, as this was a
deliberate LIE. Do not expect anyone to believe that Fr. Mousinho was ignorant
about these facts and believed what he stated to the press.

Mr. Sebastian Borges could get answers to his questions if he
could only reason out what was the population of Goa prior to 1961, and how
many people would send their children to schools. Parents did have their
choice. I had a few classmates in Loyola of the lowest strata of economical 
status
who used to come to school walking a couple of miles, bring lunch in a
‘marmite’ (‘buthi’ they called it in Concanim) composed of just cooked rice,
raw ground chillie massala (mirem), and a piece of dry fish; similar to what 
labourers
used to carry to the fields. So nobody was denied education of their choice. If 
Mr. Borges attended Portuguese 'Escola Primaria" he should be the one to know 
the reason why and not cast doubts on the then education system.





Dr. Ferdinando dos Reis Falcão.