June 28, 2005 To: The aAdministrator, GOANET. via e-mail
Sir, Attached please find the Press Statement issued by the Goa Su-Raj Party for kind favour of publication. Thanking you, Yours Sincerely, for Goa Su-Raj Party Sd/- Floriano C. Lobo Gen. Secretary/Spokesperson. ** Press Statement The Goa Su-Raj Party condems the policy of the Dhempe Higher Secondary School of Arts & Science, Panjim, for discriminating students opting for portuguese language as an optional subject. It has been brought to our notice by the parents of the aggrieved students of the eleventh standard, numbering about twenty, who have opted for portuguese as an optional language, that they met yesterday the Principal of the Higher Secondary School and requested him to conduct portuguese language classes in the school premises. The Principal, we are told, showed his inability to do so for want of space and has advised the parents to make alternate arrangements on their own for a teacher to teach the subject outside the college. The parents are believed to have questioned the Principal as to why they should make such arrangements when the rules of the Higher Secondary Board stipulates that the concerned institution should provide the teacher if the strength of the students is minimum fifteen. The Goa Su-Raj Party strongly supports the demand of the association of aggrieved parents for such a demand for their wards and urges the education minister to intervene immediately to redress the legitimate grievances of the students. It is common knowledge that systematic efforts are being made to discourage and ultimately eliminate the study of the portuguese language in Goa, when the study of same is a part of the curriculum even at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Call centers located at Chennai and other places have been advertising in the local papers seeking candidates knowing the portuguese language. Knowledge of portuguese is now an advantage in employment. Why the discrimination? Don't these institutions wish to provide their students with advantages that will help them to secure jobs? Or is there hatred of the language so deep-rooted that the welfare of the students is chucked to the winds? At a time when India is actively pursuing its entry into the European Union Market of which Portugal is a member and was its past president, and when the interests of Portugal were at one time looked after by the Consul General of Portugal Mr. Surendra Dempo, a scion of the Dempo family, it is strange to find that an educational institution promoted and patronized by the Dempo family refuses to encourage the study of the portuguese language. End.
