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Hi Joe,
You have made some good and specific points. Here are some thoughts.
Primary education is important as you point out. Yet, it is my understanding,
even more important is pre-primary education. This includes both KG and pre-KG,
when the infant's brain is developing. Based on this, perhaps new parents (and
grandparents) should form their own parent-pool and teach the pre-KG children.
Learning from what my own grandchildren are going through, these kids should
read, write and memorize the old fashion way - songs, nursery rhymes, basic
prayers etc. One does not need a school, a church, priest, nun to organize
this. So if we fail here, ho soglo guneaum amcho Goenkarancho.
The drop-out rate in Goa, like in the USA, is not school or money related. It
is more likely a flawed upbringing at home and starts very young. This is
important in today's nuclear family where the grandparents and other relatives
may be far away. Actually the nuclear family is yesterday's social unit.
Today's young family is more likely to be a single-parent unit.
The poor English communication skills can be corrected with Parent-Teachers
Associations having old-fashioned elocutions, debating contests, drama, essay
writing competition, spelling bee, summer book reading programs, etc. Parents
should stop blaming teachers, priests, nuns and schools. Rather they should
volunteer and cooperate in these extracurricular activities; casting away their
concepts of podhi and patrade (pride and prejudice).
Would we not love to read posts from Goa's school and college students on
Goanet? A few years ago WGD had a essay-writing competition. I do not know how
successful it was in encouraging students to participate. In life one can take
the horse to the water, but one cannot force the horse to drink. I
congratulate you for sparing your vacation to Goa to share your computer and
language skills. Now are there no native Goans with these skills? This is a
golden opportunity to volunteer or be entrepreneurs.
Kind Regards, GL
---------- Joe Vaz
I agree, many Goans are doing (or have done) extremely well for themselves in
many parts of the world wherever they work or have settled.
But now we are talking about primary education in Goa. IF our current education
system is solid (assuming that we have a very good primary education system) --
which is the foundation for a better secondary and higher education, -- then
why are we seeing the phenomenal number of dropouts? Can you explain? You say
education is a societal issue and how did the society inherit this
issue/problem?
In a recent conversation with a Canadian born friend (whose parents migrated
from India) observed that many of our Indian engineers lack the English
communication and presentation skills, which is a major obstacle for their
advancement. I fully agree with him. We want our children not merely to have
a good education but also to acquire the best communication skills, -- the lack
of both is abundantly evident in Goa.
Every year during my trip/s to Goa, I set aside time to teach young boys and
girls computer and language skills. I think it is time well spent and a
worthwhile investment. Often, I am saddened that a majority of our Goan youth
is not well equipped to meet the harsher challenges in the outside world. It
is sad that they struggle to produce a reasonably well written job application
in English. No wonder they are forced to settle for low paid jobs.
