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As long as the issue is couched in terms of religion a solution will be hard to find. The winner takes it all approach will not take us very far
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The writing is on the wall and it is in English. Data collected by the education department for the current academic year shows that nearly 60 per cent of the students at the primary level are studying with English as the medium of instruction. Of the 96,467 students in primary classes in the State, 56,515 are in English primary schools. The second biggest chunk of students (31,058) are in Marathi schools and only 6,409 are studying in schools where Konkani, the official language of the State, is the medium of instruction. It is obvious the number of students in Konkani medium schools would have automatically gone up if schools run by the Diocesan Society of Education had not shifted to English consequent on receiving grants from the government. So the situation that we have in the State is that the demand for English has outstripped local languages.
In this respect the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch and the Forum for Rights of Childrens’ Education represent the opposite ends of the spectrum. For over 25 years governments used grants to steer children towards primary schools where the medium of instruction was in the vernacular. In the meanwhile parents started opting for English-based primary education even if it came at a high price. Once the nuts and bolts that were holding the education policy together were removed, it came apart, to the benefit of parents who favoured English. Did the students benefit? No one really knows. What we have is a pedagogical theory that is difficult to implement because of Goa’s confused and complicated language preferences.
So where do we go from here? The language pendulum, which had swung to the side of vernacular has now swung to the side of English. Should this pendulum be allowed to swing from one side to another depending on elections and who wins them? Or is there another solution to this issue, the so called hard-to-find middle ground?
As long as the issue is couched in terms of religion a solution will be hard to find. The winner takes it all approach will not take us very far because there will always be a disgruntled group. The loser will always take up cudgels to fight his or her cause as is the case with the BBSM right now. In this fight what has gone unnoticed is the sorry State to which Konkani has been reduced. Why are parents, who speak Konkani at home and use it to communicate with others reluctant to send their children to a Konkani medium school? Why did the three-decade long experiment of using grants to push Konkani forward fail? Why are Konkani speakers a divided lot? These issues are being glossed over because we are still caught in the ancient political practice of creating blocs. However, these issues are fundamental to a lasting solution.
The BBSM leader might be right that Goans will lose their identity. He has said that we must convince parents that education in the mother tongue is the best. These are noble ideals, but given Goa’s history and its cultural diversity the solution cannot lie at the extreme ends of the pendulum’s period. They lie elsewhere, perhaps outside the sphere of education. Can we find that sweet spot without a fight?
