Dear Joao Barros, A few queries for the purposes of clarification:
1: what % of Goans have Marathi as their mother tongue? i.e. speak Marathi with their mothers 2: what % of schools in Goa are Marathi medium? 3: what do you mean by "children ALLOWED to be educated .... In English"? 4: are you SERIOUS about demanding the shutting down of schools which teach in English medium? IF so ..... ALL I can say is WOW! jc spoke Marathi at home and around .... Konkani with my mother ....but delighted that I attended an English medium school Pardon any Typos. This IPad does some curious auto- corrections On Jun 16, 2012, at 9:54 AM, Joao Barros-Pereira <joaobarrospere...@gmail.com> wrote: > *for kind publication in Goanet, * > > *appeared in Goan Observer 16 June* > > * > * > > *MOI* > > THE MOI issue is still controversial, judging by the opinions in the media > with emphasis on it being a temporary decision. But, is it? CM Parrikar has > made it clear that his decision to grant financial support to parochial > schools where the medium of instruction is English is an administrative and > not an educational solution. The formulation of the curriculum is the job > of educators and not the CM. The people who are in favour of the native > language have time and again made reference to the importance of the > universal pedagogical principle of educating children in their native > language. It is, no doubt, a valid language principle but it applies to > children in all schools of Goa. > > We, of course, have a serious problem because in private primary schools > children are allowed to be educated, not in their native languages of > Konkani or Marathi, but in English! This, no doubt, is an educational > problem. All schools will have to follow the same language policy and > whether they get financial aid or not is a separate issue. > > The supporters of the universal pedagogical principle of educating children > in their mother tongue, to be consistent with their educational philosophy, > will have to demand the shutting down of all English medium primary > schools. So far no one has uttered a single word! > > No educational committee anywhere in the world will have two different > opinions on this point as it is illogical and contradictory to have two > opposite educational principles, one for private schools and another for > non-private schools. Another word for this is discrimination. The > implementation of the language policy of the government will have to be the > same for all schools, government or not. > > As the government does not want to politicise the language issue-and a wise > decision too-the only other choice available to the government would be to > shut down all private primary schools where English is used as the medium > of instruction so the universal pedagogical principle is consistent for all > schools. Or allow for multi-lingual primary education. Is there another > choice? > > *Joao Barros Pereira, > Japan.*