the goan I network
PANAJI
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Monday said that the State Government has granted permission to 87 primary schools in Konkani and Marathi medium in the last four years as per the Medium of Instruction (MoI) policy, even as no single English-medium primary school has been granted permission.
Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a function in Panaji, Parsekar said, “It has been the policy of this government that the Medium of Instruction at primary level has to be mother tongue. It has been my own viewpoint as well.”
Taking a dig at Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Mach (BBSM), he said , “The implementation of MoI policy which BBSM is talking about, we have already implemented. And we are working based on that policy itself.
In the last four years we have granted permissions to 87 Marathi and Konkani primary schools. Not a single English-medium primary school has been granted permission.”
Speaking further, he said, “I have not understood the importance of mother tongue after I took over as the chief minister, it is in my blood. Even the school which is run by me is an English medium school from standard fifth upto college level, but the primary and pre-primary education is imparted in mother tongue. It was started in the year 1990 and not when the Medium of Instruction controversy began.”
To learn the importance of primary education in mother tongue, the chief minister advised comparison of the two schools in his village.
