However complex it may sound, the medium of instruction issue is simple and straightforward subject to acceptance of stats, facts and reality. First, the stats.
The total number of primary schools in Goa is close to 1200. Roughly hundred thousand students are enrolled in these institutions. Around 26 thousand students learn in 141 private English schools. More than 30 thousand study in Diocesan and Archdiocesan schools. Close to 35 thousand students take education in 878 Marathi medium schools and around 9 thousand students belong to Konkani, Urdu and Kannada primary schools. In percentage: it is 56 percent English, 35 percent Marathi plus 9 percent Konkani and others.
Now let’s move on to the facts. Fact 1: BBSM wants primary education in “mother tongue” because you learn “concepts” and not “language” in primary school and understanding of these concepts is better transpired through mother tongue. They also pose a “cultural-right” argument of children getting culturally alienated if they study in English from primary level.
Fact 2: FORCE wants “choice”. Let parents decide is their argument. If we analyse the stats mentioned above we get a perfect idea of what parents decide. The basic premise of their “decision” is English helps in long run. Konkani and Marathi are “useless” in the competitive world. So English is the obvious “choice”.
Fact 3 with respect to BBSM narrative: If domestic environment of a child is Konkani, even Marathi is a foreign language for a 5 year old kid. If home environment is English, even Konkani is unfriendly. And those who studied in English medium “private” primary schools, much before the successive governments allotted grants to the Diocesan and Archdiocesan schools haven’t been “denationalised” or culturally uprooted. They are a strong and integral part of the citizenry of this country.
Fact 4 with reference to FORCE narrative: A child will face trouble learning in English medium primary school if your routine at home is in Konkani. It is about “understanding” basic concepts of learning and not learning English. Secondly, primary education in English is not the testimony of fact that your child will have command over English language. I have seen students from English medium primary schools using a vocabulary worse than those with Konkani-Marathi medium; same with the students from Konkani-Marathi medium.
In short, it is your ecosystem that shapes your language preference and growth rather than primary education and there are fundamental flaws in the gross narratives provided by both the warring camps. Why is this more of an emotional or political issue and less of educational? The answer is simple again.
The decision was taken based not on the view of experts or detailed deliberations with state, national and even international experts, but on the whims and “committee politics” of few individuals whose loyalties sway on either side of the pendulum.
The Digambar Kamat government decided to give grants and allow change of medium from Konkani to English to Diocesan and Archdiocesan schools solely to please the church-run body. Manohar Parrikar, after donning the t-shirts with “English Why” during the pre-2012 agitation, decided to perform volte face for the same very reason. Not Congress, not BJP wanted to be in the bad books of the holy body.
Was the decision based on “principles of learning”? If yes, than the principle applies to everybody and every school. You cannot have two separate sets of “principles of education” for majority and minority. All children are same and everybody is equal. If English can no longer be considered as “foreign” language, it applies to the entire population “ not majority or minority. And if some of our families have total English environment at home, their child should have the right to study in an English primary school getting “grant-in-aid” from the government. If not, the decision is wrong.
We also need to analyze the argument of “choice” in greater detail. Choice can be wise and unwise. It can be informed and ill-informed. It can be based on facts or misconceptions. For example “ a family with complete English culture at home admitting their child in an English medium primary school is a “wise” choice. But another family with complete Konkani outlook and upbringing sending their child to an English medium primary school believing that it would learn better English is an “unwise” choice. Primary education is not about learning a language but “learning in a language”.
Now the reality.
Reality 1 “ What have we, including the government, education department, BBSM or FORCE, done to “educate” our parents on how to “choose” medium of instruction at primary level for their child? “ Nothing.
Reality 2 “ What have we done to improve “quality” of education in our primary and secondary schools? Have we made efforts to ensure that a language subject is taught as a “language” with all its nuances and not as a set of boring chapters to score better in examinations? “ No.
Reality 3 “ Will we send our child to a school just because it is in English or Konkani-Marathi medium or because it is a “good school”? What will be our “studied” decision? “ I believe we all know a crystal clear answer to that question.
One last point: It is always better to know more languages, more scripts and more dialects. There is nothing more pleasurable.
Pramod Acharya is Editor, Prudent Media
