BRIEfnCOUNTERS: IVO COELHO, SALESIAN PROVINCIAL 'FOOTBALL, EMPLOYMENT... THIS COULD BE THE LANGUAGE OF OUR YOUTH TODAY'
His colleagues describe the new Salesian provincial for Goa as young and dynamic. Fr Ivo Coelho, SDB, would obviously have his work cut out for him as this religious order seeks to make its work more relevant to the life and times of the people of Goa. Fr Coelho can be contacted via email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Extract from an interview: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- What are the Salesians plans for expanding their educational network in Goa over, say, the next 5-10 years? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As yet we do not have an organic plan and vision. However, we have begun the process of working out such a plan. We are presently engaged in implementing a process called Participatory Strategic Planning (PSP). This is a question of listening to and becoming aware of people's needs, finding out our own capacities, and then deciding which of those needs we can meet. We want the expansion plans to develop from such a process, rather than from a top-down process where we decide what people need. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- How much of these plans would be specially targetted at the poor? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am hoping that our prime energies will be targeted at the poor. In Benaulim, for example, we suddenly became aware that most of the Church agencies and activities manage to touch a very small percentage of the youth -- those who are willing to come for these activities, those who are willing to venture into our structures and institutions. But there are so many on the fringes, so many in Benaulim itself who will never walk into a place like the Don Bosco Animation Centre. We want to reach out to these, and we are aware that we will need a mastery of Konkani as well as new strategies and fresh thinking. We need to speak the language of these youth. Perhaps that language is football, perhaps that language is employment. In Sulcorna too, the whole community took part in a 'Participatory Rural Appraisal' of one of the villages near our campus. An immediate outcome was to open up our school to the children of this village. But more than direct intervention, we are hoping that we will be able to help people discover their own potential, their own abilities to take their lives into their hands. Maybe we will be able to help with whatever training is needed for this. That will be our new educational venture. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- What were the factors that led to the delay in the expansion of Salesian education in Goa in the past? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- At a certain point in the past, we felt that Goa was well catered to by other Church agencies, and that the Salesians could concentrate on other areas. This is perhaps one of the main factors that led to the delay of our expansion in Goa. Another factor is that we have been busy by and large within our institutions, and within these institutions the language tends to be English. Without a mastery of Konkani, it is impossible to reach out in Goa. A third factor is that we were slow in perceiving the needs of the youth in Goa, and so a 'vision' for Goa has not been forthcoming. I am hoping that the proposed Participatory Strategic Planning exercise will help offset this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do you'll peceive as being the most pressing needs of students today in a state like Goa? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have the impression that the drop-out rate is alarmingly high. We need to strengthen the educational network. We need to involve parents in the work of education. We need to invest in the formation of good and committed teachers. Perhaps we need to invest also in mundane things such as transport. Above all, we need to make school a pleasant place to be in. School must stop being a prison for the energies of our children. It must be a place where their best energies find expression and creative outlet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Are middle-class parents willing to pay higher fees for the professional education of their children? If so, could this be utilised to subsidise the education of the poor? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am unable to say, but it is an idea that is worth looking into. Social responsibility is an idea whose time has come. People may be ready to contribute to a good cause. And ultimately all 'charity' really gives returns: the more the opportunities, the more the possibility of education and employment, the more peaceful and harmonious is society. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- What has been the response to Salesian attempts at technical education in Goa? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our non-formal set-up at Loutolim (the Don Bosco Crafts Complex, catering specially to dropouts) seems to be doing very well. The numbers of young people that we are able to serve has not been great, but it is a work that is going well. Hopefully more and more young people will take advantage of it, especially now that two new workshops have been set up. The formal set-ups are undergoing a difficult moment not only in Goa but all over the province. Numbers are dropping in the traditional trades, and there is need for fresh thinking and innovative approaches, which is what our community at Fatorda has decided to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do your education facilities in Goa compare with those in the rest of India? Has it grown as fast or proportionate to the size of the population? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (In terms of Salesian facilities) our desire has been to reach out to those places where no one else goes, and to avoid investing in the traditional places. That may have been another reason why we tended to overlook Goa. Of late however we have become aware of the great needs of the youth in Goa itself: in the peripheries, but also in the traditional pockets; as regards education in the formal sense, but also education in the larger sense of social and political responsibility, caring for the earth and its inhabitants, learning to live free and walk tall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- What are the dreams of the province on the educational and other fronts related to Goa? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the formal front, we have already begun a Computer Applications college in Panjim, which possibly might develop further. The NOS (National Open School) is a wonderful system that deserves to be made available to more and more youngsters. The beauty of this system is that it calls for a minimum infrastructure, and that it is child-friendly. We hope to be able to make this system available to as many youngsters as possible in the coming years. Not only through our direct interventions, but hopefully also through other agencies and organizations with whom we could network. There is need also of other educational support systems for our youth, such as supplementary classes and tuitions. These also do not call for massive infrastructure. Once again, to be really effective, we would need to establish a large network with the help of like-minded organizations. A new type of support system would be what we might call "leisure centres". These would provide physical activities, skill development in such things as football, but also in crafts, chess, and ancient Eastern games. The emphasis here would be more on learning and understanding rather than on formal schooling. These centres would cater to all age groups, including senior citizens, who tend to be the forgotten ones. They would include computer centres with reciprocal learning and programs about stars, nature, geology, etc. Such learning possibilities would be supplemented with stimulus lectures by knowledgeable people about their own environment of flora, fauna, river, geological strata, language, origins, cultures, etc. A major problem is employment. We would like to begin an employment bureau or job placement service. There are plenty of jobs which Goan youth either do not seem to want or else are ignorant about. The bureau would make itself familiar with job opportunities, spread this information, and urge existing institutions to gear themselves towards these opportunities. The youth counselling services that we have begun in Panjim will hopefully be extended to the rural areas. The Child Line (a service to help children in distress, or needing help, functioning out of Don Bosco's Panjim on phone number 1098) is already functioning. We hope that this service will develop even better. Communication and the influencing of the mass media is another area where we hope to make a contribution. Finally, there is need to build up social and political responsibility. Recently, Bishop Aloysius D'Souza of Mangalore was telling me that he has more than 350 laypeople at different levels of government, local and regional, in his diocese, and that in his visits to the parishes, he always inquires about and encourages participation in the organs of government. I would like our set ups, formal and non-formal, to take this as a major dimension of education. Social and political responsibility is a concrete way of practicing Christian charity in our days. It just cannot be ignored. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- How supportive have the past-pupils been of your initiatives? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hear that our past pupils are extremely helpful, and that one comes across them anywhere and everywhere. Perhaps this is a powerful force that needs to be harnessed even more. Once we have worked out a vision together, I am confident that a wonderful synergy will be born? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Any other issues relevant to Goa that we've not covered? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would like to take this opportunity to invite our lay people to collaborate with us, and I would like to invite our Salesians to tap this wonderful resource more and more. 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