MARGAO
The Goa Forward party has demanded that the government must withdraw its recent decisions on merger of schools and adoption of anganwadis and instead come up with a holistic policy in education after careful deliberation with all the education stakeholders.
Addressing the media, Goa Forward general secretary Durgadas Kamat said the mismanagement in the education system was exposed in the recent CAG report for year 2019-20. However since then, the policy paralysis in the Goa Government led by Dr. Pramod Sawant has worsened.
“In the last one week, two irrational decisions have been taken. The first decision that this government has taken is with regards to the merging of schools. Without any application of mind the students, teachers and parents are being put through hardships just because the government is bankrupt and wants to shut down many government schools across Goa. The government plans to merge more than 200 schools in Goa. Such a big decision will have huge implications and should have been debated and deliberated by stakeholders of Goan education system”, he asserted.
He pointed out that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 provides for access to elementary schools for children of the age group of 6-14 years, within the defined area or limits of neighbourhood.
Saying the decision to amalgamate schools goes against the spirit of the Act, he said the idea behind Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan was to take schools to the villages. “Today, the government wants to take the students out of the villages. There will be severe fallout of this decision. The students will all of a sudden be forced to adapt to a strange environment in the new school. This will lead to inferiority complex, bullying and isolation of the students especially from poor families. This will lead to further dropouts in schools”, he added.
On government’s decision to direct schools to adopt anganwadis, Kamat said not only do these two entities fall under two separate departments, the objectives of the schools and entities are distinct.
