medium of instruction in Goa is heating up.
After thousands of supporters of the English language as the medium of
instruction for school students marked their turf on Monday, a new
front Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) has vowed to back
regional languages Konkani and Marathi.
The BBSM, which comprises freedom fighters, a former chief minister
and a section of the clergy, has now threatened a statewide agitation
against making English as the medium of instruction.
"We want the education minister to resign for being part of a meeting
which demanded that English should be made the medium of instruction,"
former chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar said.
Underlining the importance of the mother tongue, Kakodkar said a
massive statewide agitation would be organized by the BBSM to "end
attempts made by vested interests towards cultural annihilation of Goa
and de-linking Goa from the national mainstream".
On Monday, thousands of people, mostly parents of school-going
children and nearly all of the state's Catholic legislators, converged
in the capital, demanding state grants to primary schools offering
English as medium of instruction.
The rally organized by the Forum for Rights of Children's Education
(FORCE), comes against the backdrop of the central Right to Education
(RTE) Act, which envisions the child's mother tongue -- in Goa's case
Konkani -- as the medium of instruction. The act is scheduled to be
ratified in the state legislative assembly soon.
The meeting also demanded that the state government should de-link
grants from medium of instruction clause and that grants should also
be given to schools offering English as a medium of instruction, not
just Konkani or Marathi. IANS
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