Medium of Instruction at a Glance
Pratapananda Naik, S.J.
14
April 2011
Directorate of
Education, Panaji has published two books, namely, List of Recognised Educational Institutions in Goa 2009-2010 and Educational Statistics at a Glance 2009-2010. In these two important and useful books one
could get a lot of information regarding the medium of instruction, number of
students and data related to the primary schools (Std I to IV) and high schools.
In Goa there are 315 Non-Government (private)
primary schools. Out of these 130 are English medium primary schools. Most of
them are run by the Hindu community! In these English medium schools 50,272
students are studying. In 46 Non-Government Marathi medium schools 15,512
students are found. Most of these Marathi medium schools are owned by
Hindus. Out of the 139 Non-Government
Konknni medium schools 127 belong to Christian management, 6 to Hindu
management, 1 to the Muslim Community and 5 belong to mixed management (owned
by people of different religions). In these Konknni medium schools 61,256
students have enrolled. There are 3 Urdu medium private schools with students’
strength 644.
Out of the 937
Government primary schools in Goa, 887 schools
offer Marathi as the medium of instruction! And 61,270 students are studying in
these schools. In contrast to this there are only 67 government schools offer
Konknni as the medium of instruction! 3,912 students only have enrolled in
these schools. In 15 Kannada medium
government schools 3,498 students are found. In 24 Urdu medium government
schools 2,840 students are studying. There are 4 Hindi medium government
schools with 690 students. There is only one Telugu medium Government school in
Goa with 52 students. There are no State
Government English medium primary schools in Goa.
However there are 5 Central Government English medium primary schools with
3,060 students!
From the above
statistics one could sum up as follows. There are 135 English medium primary
schools in Goa with 80,332 students. In 933
Marathi medium primary schools 76,782 students have enrolled. There are 206
Konknni medium schools with 65,168 students.
Konknni is
claimed to be the mother tongue of Goans. If this is true, the question arises
why there are 933 Marathi medium primary schools compared to 206 Konknni medium
schools. In Goa for the academic year
1994-1995 there were 238 Konknni, 1030 Marathi and 46 English medium primary
schools. The highest numbers of Konknni medium primary schools 244 were in the
academic year 1995-1996. Since then the number of Marathi and Konknni medium
schools have considerably reduced and there is a sharp rise in English medium
schools. The growth of reduction is far great for Konknni medium schools. Konknni
medium schools so far have survived because of the support of the Church.
Christian community was not in favour of Konknni as the medium of instruction.
It was forced upon them by the school managements to avail grants to pay the
government pay scale to their teachers. In a good number of these so called
Konknni medium primary schools, English continues to be the medium of
instruction! All the English medium primary schools in Goa
are unaided.
In Goa Konknni is
the official language of the State. Yet, there is not a single Konknni medium
high school (Std V to X)! However, there are 16 Marathi, 6 Kannada and 4 Urdu
medium high schools are found in Goa. From these one could conclude that in Goa parents do not prefer Konknni as the medium of
instruction. Devanagari protagonists of Konknni have done nothing to promote
Konknni as the medium of instruction in the government schools and in Hindu
management schools. They want to continue their hegemony over the Christians
and Bahujan Samaj of Hindu community by insisting “Mother tongue” as the medium
of instruction, without defining what is the “Mother tongue” of Goans. In Goa,
common places like bus stands and market places one hears more English, Hindi or
Kannada languages compared to Marathi. Except the Bhat community and recent
Maharashtrian settlers in Goa, native Goans
have learnt Marathi through education. If Marathi could be considered as the regional
language of Goa, then English has the greater right to claim as the important
and popular regional language in Goa. Those
who shout at the top of their voice “Mother tongue” should be the medium of
primary education, run most of the Marathi and English medium primary schools
and send their children and grand children to these schools! They themselves
are the product of Marathi or English medium primary education. They preach to
others what they do not practice! Parents and those who love and care for the
children of Goa should unite and fight these
forces of “Mother tongue” chauvinists and “patriotic” culturists.
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