The Chikali Agapur’s school building.
PONDA
Government Primary Schools (GPS) in the Adpai-Agapur panchayat area are now a thing of the past, making it the first panchayat area in the State to have all seven government primary schools shut down.
As all GPSs have been shut, the process to shift the panchayat office in the empty building of one GPS has started. The other school buildings are being used as polling booths during the elections.
The Chikali-Agapur GPS building had been built by the Portuguese and inaugurated by then Portuguese Governor General Manuel Antonio Vassalo e Silva on October 16, 1961.
But within two months, Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule and the State government began using the building as a government primary school.
This GPS was, however, shut for the past 10-12 years, and only used as an election booth or to do Saraswati pujan. Six other GPSs in the panchayat area are also shut since the past few years.
The children in this panchayat area are studying at various schools in Ponda.
As the Adpai-Agapur panchayat office is small, the Chikali-Agapur GPS building will be used as the panchayat office and the process has already started.
Sagar Naik Mule said parents are responsible for the closure of government primary schools. “They started sending their children to schools in Ponda and hence, the GPSs in the village had to be shut,” he said.
When contacted, Adpai-Agapur Sarpanch Chandan Naik confirmed that the process to shift the panchayat office to the Chikali-Agapur GPS building has started.
