Opinion Poll to be a part of History textbooks from next academic year

OTHER NEW CHAPTERS

1)

Anti-Zuari Agro Ind
Pvt Ltd agitation

2)

The Ramponkar
Agitation of 1975

3)

The student's agitation
for 50% bus fare in 1979

4)

The language agitation
in 1985-86 for Konkani

(And several other important agitations which led to impacting outcomes)
-------------------------------------

PANAJI: Goa moved a step closer to including the history of the momentous 1967 plebiscite - Opinion Poll - in its school text books from the ensuing 2019-20 academic year.
The Academic Council of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) approved the proposal to include the material on the Opinion Poll in the history curriculum of class IX and X. The meeting held on Wednesday was chaired by the education Board's chairman Ramkrishna Samant. The Opinion Poll, meanwhile, will not be the only event from Goa's post liberation history which will find its way into school curriculum from this year.
Approval was granted at Wednesday's meeting to include several "milestone events" from Goa's History between 1961 to 2000 as part of the history syllabus for standards IX and X.
A committee had been appointed to study the milestone events in the current History textbooks of Classes IX and X, and submit a revised copy of milestone events from 1961 to 2000 that had so far not been a part of textbooks.
The committee further recommended that the portion on "Goa's Freedom Struggle" in the current History text book of Class X be shifted to the text book of Class IX in order to maintain chronological sequence of historical events.
Just before "Opinion Poll Day" on January 16 this year, 'The Goan' had reported that the 1967 Opinion Poll which was pushed for by Dr Jack de Siqueira would become part of the school syllabus in the next academic year, if instructional matter compiled on these historic movements got the nod of the Academic Council.
The panel comprising of historians and experts headed by Prof Harsha Kamat, which was assigned the job of carrying out a detailed study into these historic events had submitted the instructional matter to the Chairman of the Goa Board at the time.
Another popular movement of Goa which will find mention in the textbooks is the "Anti-Zuari Agro Industries Pvt Ltd agitation" which is considered Goa's first stir against environmental pollution. It was led by the late Mathany Saldanha.
The movement led to the Central Government setting up a Central Pollution Control Board and its state unit in Goa under the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1974.
The Ramponkar Agitation of 1975 which led to the passing of the Goa, Daman and Diu Marine Fisheries Regulation Act 1981, the student's agitation for 50% bus fare in 1979, the language agitation in 1985-86 which finally culminated in Konkani being included in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution in 1987, the Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan, and several other important agitations which led to impacting outcomes will be included.