House votes down resolution for Romi Konkani in schools

PANAJI
The Goa Legislative Assembly on Friday rejected by a 24-6 vote a private member's resolution seeking introduction of Romi Konkani in schools in the State moved by Aldona MLA, Carlos Alvares Ferreira.

The resolution was put to vote after Ferreira rejected the request from Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to withdraw it when six MLAs from the Opposition voted in favour while 24 from the ruling side rejected it.

Ferreira sought to argue that Konkani in the Romi script has been in use for over 450 years in Goa and is currently used by a significant section of the population.

He said, the National Education Policy supports and recognises the need for effective educational benefits through the power of language.

Quoting a para from the NEP, Ferreira said the policy also recognises that young children learn and grasp nontrivial concepts more quickly in their "home language" which is usually the same as mother tongue or the one spoken by local communities.

Ferreira urged the government to therefore make provisions and give the option of Romi Konkani in schools which Sawant who is also the education minister rejected steadfastly.

Sawant said the issue of script for Konkani was settled in 1962 by a Commission which ruled that it should be Devanagiri. He also said that a committee of educationists framed the language policy for school education under NEP and there was no need to make any changes in it.

Sawant also opined that the bogey of Romi script being raised through the resolution has the potential of dividing Goans.

However Opposition MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Cruz Silva, Venzy Viegas and Altone D'Costa backed Ferreira's resolution and the demand for Romi Konkani option for students in schools.

Several of them argued that even in neighbouring Karnataka, the government provides grants for teaching Konkani in both Devanagiri as well as in Kannada script but the arguments did not convince Sawant who kept insisting that Ferreira withdraw the resolution.

Ferreira however declined to do so and it was eventually defeated by a 24-6 vote with one Opposition MLA, Viresh Borkar, unable to record his vote since he was ejected from the House a few minutes earlier.