Govt preparing case for Diocesan: Nadkarni
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 19 July 2011 21:51 IST
Pandurang Nadkarni
The ongoing hearing on Medium of Instruction in the high court took a dramatic turn today with the petitioners making an allegation that the government is preparing a case to benefit only the schools owned by the Archdiocesan Board of Education.
Counsels of veteran educationist Pandurang Nadkarni and three parents told the court that the education department has provided incomplete and incorrect statistics to project a picture that 90 per cent parents are in favour of English medium at primary level.
The petitioners filed a reply to the affidavit filed by Advocate General Subodh Kantak in this regard.
It had stated that 90 per cent parents of 145 aided primary schools have opted for English medium. 130 of these aided schools are attached to Diocesan Society of Education and other missionaries.
Petitioners however pointed out that there are around 834 Marathi medium and 33 Konkani medium government primary schools, besides 46 Marathi and 139 Konkani medium aided schools in Goa.
However, the government has provided statistics of only 145 aided schools to the court, the petitioner argued.
The petitioner’s counsel also pointed out several difficulties in implementing the decision from this academic year, including inadequate infrastructure in government schools, inadequate facilities in aided schools, inadequate number of trained teachers and lack of textbooks and other amenities.
The court was also told that chief minister Digambar Kamat and education minister Babush Monseratte are forcing the monitoring committee to implement the decision, while the committee has suggested that the issue be re-examined at cabinet level.
