Dears, Pasted below are two Page One articles from two newspapers of today, 28 February, 2008, the National Science Day in honour of Dr.C.V. Raman. Pedagogy, the science of teaching, has unfortunately been made a farce instead of being a force.
The Herald report is the ABE's attempt at trying to "have the cake and eat it , too". The schools want to avail of the Goa Government's Grant-in-aid to pay the salaries of the existing teachers in the FREE Primary Education in local language [euphemism for Marathi and Konkani, both in Devanagri script] system and the much in demand HIGH PRICED Primary education in the English medium [obviously, in the Roman script]. The proliferation of PRIVATE [euphemism for COMMERCIAL] Primary schools in the English medium, and the willingness of parents [irrespective of religion, caste and social strata] to send their children to these schools by paying high fees, bus fares and donations is shaking up the ABE from its slumber after FIFTEEN LONG YEARS [1992-2008]. This is unlikely to happen in a hurry. Desperate situations require desperate actions. The ABE seeks to stick to its side of the footpath, looking left and right, left and right again... when the need is to cross the road at the Zebra crossing to reach the otherside. Why not rent space and set up a parallel Primary school of its own in English? They can very well benchmark the successful model of Dnyanprasarak Mandal's Higher Secondary Schools at Assagao for their Primary Schools even if their own HSS managements cannot see that far. The NCERT study was for the STANDARD V students in Government Secondary Schools of South Goa, 11 of them in Urban areas and the rest in Rural areas [according to other reports]. The NT report only states: "Goa has performed below average as far as a test conducted for a sample size of 1,231 students studying in Class V in South Goa, is concerned. The test was conducted in three subjects, namely environmental studies, mathematics and language." which fits well in its campaign to show that the Goans are highly rated duds. It also makes no mention of the fact that almost all students in the non-private schools, are in the transition from MARATHI in GPS and KONKANI in ABE/DSE schools in Standard V. When these students can hardly read and write in English, what "environmental studies, mathematics and language" questions will they answer although they are now officially deemed to be English medium students? Mog asundi. Miguel HERALD 28 February, 2008 Diocesan Board for dual medium at primary level BY HERALD REPORTER MARGAO, FEB 27 - The Diocesan Board of Education has strongly favoured introduction of bilingual medium of instruction in the primary section. "In our primary section, both Konkani and English could be given equal importance so that the student could learn both the languages well. We are living in a multi-lingual country and more the languages you learn, the better it is," remarked DBE vice-President, Fr Paul Sagayam, while addressing students and teachers at the All Goa Catholic Schools Day celebration at Navelim on Wednesday. Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, who was the chief guest at the function, however, preferred not to speak on the subject during his address. Fr Sagayam made the comment in view of the mushrooming of English medium primary schools that charge fees and the readiness of parents to pay high fees to educate their wards. "This shows that the free education given by the government lacks something. We feel that this problem can be reduced to a great extent by introducing bilingual medium in primary schools", he maintained. Fr Sagayam also took the opportunity to highlight the grievances faced by diocesan schools. While referring to the Official Gazette that says the management of a minority school has the right to select and appoint the head of the minority school and any other person of its choice who possesses the educational qualification, Fr Sagayam remarked, "The Constitution guarantees the right of minorities to establish and administer, but the State government is not ready to give us our due." He said the request for a clerk and a peon in the primary section has been rejected for many years. "Whenever we approached the Department of Education, we were told that the Finance Ministry has rejected the proposal of the Director of Education," Fr Sagayam told the gathering. ENDS NAVHIND TIMES. 28 February, 2008 Learning abilities of Goa's school students are poor:NCERT study by Ramnath Raikar Panaji, Feb 27 Contrary to the perception that school education in Goa is of very high standards, an NCERT study has found the picture much below par. A recent survey conducted by the department of educational measurement and evaluation, National Council of Educational Research and Training to find the learning abilities of the Class V students around the country was a revelation for Goa, which boasts of nearly 82 per cent literacy and has excelled in various parameters while competing with other states. The report of the nationwide survey points out that Goa has performed below average as far as a test conducted for a sample size of 1,231 students studying in Class V in South Goa, is concerned. The test was conducted in three subjects, namely environmental studies, mathematics and language. The report shows that the Goan batch obtained mean percentage of 35.60 per cent in environmental studies, 30.48 per cent in mathematics, while 44.68 per cent in language, with -14.70 per cent, -16.03 per cent and -13.89 per cent as the difference in mean percentage with the national average, respectively. The survey report further observed that over 50 per cent of Class V students in government schools cannot clear a simple mathematics test, and of them, about 45 per cent cannot even carry out plain addition and subtraction. The only silver lining in the report is the observation that students in many states were gaining momentum with their learning abilities. The students of the participating schools were tested with 40 questions in each subject. In environmental studies, 20 questions each were asked on social science and science, while in mathematics, students were asked questions on highest common factor, lowest common factor, average, profit and loss, simple interest, measurement, fraction and decimal, per cent and geometry. In language, questions on structure of sentence, spelling, comprehension of informative passage and story were asked. The survey was conducted in 6,828 schools, 79 per cent of them in rural areas, across 266 districts. It tested 84,322 students in environment science, mathematics and language. It was found that there was a small overall increase (60.31 per cent from 58.87 per cent) in language ability and mathematics (46.51 per cent to 48.46 per cent) in the learning abilities in 2007, from the base line survey carried out in 2001-2002. Two states namely Bihar and Lakshadweep did not participate in the survey. The annual report of the department of school education and literacy, ministry of human resource development for the year 2006-2007 observed that for Goa the dropout rate is 2.43 per cent at Class V level, 6.90 per cent at Class VIII level, while is staggering 40.65 per cent at the SSC level. The same annual report further observed that the dropout rate for scheduled caste students in Goa is 56.10 per cent at Class V level, 65.72 per cent at Class VIII level, and is 78.71 per cent at the SSC level. The HRD ministry, reacting to the survey carried out to find the learning abilities of the Class V students, has blamed shortage of mathematics teachers for the poor performance of students in many states. The situation will change, the ministry officials said, with half of the allocation under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan being utilised to improve quality of education. The ministry in the 11th Five Year Plan will launch a new scheme for improving quality of education in government schools, they informed. Interestingly, a report on the achievements of the state government between the period June 7, 2005 and June 6, 2006 informed that the state government launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 2005-2006 with a total budget of Rs 1207.5 lakh, of which 75 per cent was provided by the central government. The one-year period also witnessed teacher grant of Rs 13.92 lakh and school grant of Rs 22.44 lakh being disbursed under the primary school grant head, while teacher grant of Rs 9.39 lakh and school grant of Rs 8.36 lakh being disbursed under the upper primary school grant head. The period also had recruitment and appointment of 179 teachers, with all of them "successfully" undergone 30 days induction training course at DIET, Porvorim. An amount of Rs 1.71 lakh had been spent on the 30 days induction training. Meanwhile, the central government has decided to award 100 scholarships under the scheme called 'National Talent Promotion Scheme for School Dropouts.' Under this scheme there is a provision of 15 per cent for scheduled castes and 7.5 per cent for scheduled tribes each year. The award includes financial assistance in the form of both monthly scholarship and annual book grant. ENDS -- -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. Miguel Braganza, S1 Gracinda Apts, Rajvaddo, Mhapsa 403507 Goa Ph 9822982676 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.