Dears, There are two pieces of information on page 5 of the TOI today that caught my attention "STATE EDU POLICY DRAFTED SANS RESEARCH:Committee attributes reason to lack of adequate time." Anyone who has been following the debate on the INTERIM REPORT of the Task Force on Regional Plan 2021, will get that sickening "Deja vu" feeling. To make matters a little worse for me, I was a member of the committee that drafted the SYLLABUS for Standard XI and XII [Vocational] in Horticulture and Floriculture through the monsoons of 1997 ...when Std.XI classes had already started in June that year. Do not ask me what the teachers were teaching the students till the syllabus was ready because 1. There were no prescribed text books 2. The teachers were fresh post-graduates/graduates in Agriculture, with no training in teaching and absolutely no experience in teaching. 3. The course was new and, of course, 4. There was no syllabus outlining eeven the general chapter or, for that matter, the title of the subject.
That was 1997 and just two courses. In 2008, The Education policy of the entire State in 2007 fares no better. It seems appropriate to quote Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain here. He wrote: GOD MADE IDIOTS. THAT WAS FOR PRACTICE. THEN HE MADE SCHOOL BOARDS. In the meanwhile, we have the Director of Higher Education [and former Principal of Saraswat College-Mapusa and Government Colleges in Pernem and Quepem, who could not become the Principal of Dhempe College for want of a Ph. D. needed under the new Recruit Rules to become a College Principal, in spite of the fact that then, as now, he was DHE ...the post that controls funds to all Colleges and the Goa University from Goa State!] holding the addtional charge of CHAIRMAN of Goa Board of Education, a post held till recently by a person who retired on super annuation in the "substantive" post of Deputy Director of Education. The post of DDE is subordinate to the Director of Education. The incumbent in the post of DDE definitely was not "subordinate" to the DE [though the current incumbent even has a Ph.D., to boot] while he was the Chairman of an autonomous body. I wonder if the current officiating Chairman and DHE will become subordinate to the to the DE. If the above matter confuses you, just imagine the plight of those who are supposed to unravel how the education ministry and its three Directorates [DE,DHE and DTE] 'function'. WORK is a four-leter word! In the meanwhile, M/s M. Venkat Rao Projects Pvt. Ltd. has begun work on the new bridge to Santo Jacinto island from Chicalim. My friend, Joaquim Fernandes of TNN has quoted the MD of GSIDC, Mr. Maneesh Bhauguna, clarifying that it is not a "cable-stayed" bridge but, rather, a regular [cantilever] bridge with SIX spans of 16 metres length each [totally 6 x 16 = 96 metres long], with 90 metres of approach road on either side [96 + 180 = 276 metres in all] . The bridge will be only THREE METRES high. It will be completed in 15 months. The important news for the islanders is that the CENTRAL PORTION of the existing CAUSEWAY [or pipe bridge] will be demolished and removed, while the new bridge is under construction. The flow of water under the spans of the bridge will flush out the accumulated silt and hopefully revive the Tisreo and the rare window-pane oysters [Placenta placenta] that the Chicalim Village Action Committee is agitating against the "Pinky" Bharati Shipyard, also proposed for the area. Actually, the pipe causeways have been the cause of a lot of environmental havoc in Goa. The pipe causeway over the River Mapusa at Tar has so silted the river that it has to be dredged anually to immerse the Ganapathi after Chatuthi each year. Till the 1980s, sail boats [Patmari] with a draught/draft of 1.5 meters sailed up to the immersion site with Mangalore Tiles [Sul-che Nolle of Albuquerque, Kamat and Basil Mission brands from Mangalore, Where else?] What is cheap is not necessarily good but expensive is not always better. That is why God gave us brains. My son proudly wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan, plagiarised from Mark Twain without attribution, that reads: I WAS BORN INTELLIGENT: SCHOOLING DESTROYED IT! Appropriately, his mother and half a dozen close relatives are teachers and his father has even been a member of a School Board. One aunt of his has even contributed to the "Integrated Education Advisory Council" of the state of Goa. the result is quite "educative"! Mog asundi. Miguel On 5/27/08, Miguel Braganza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Selma, > > Please visit www.savegoa.com and read the full text of the Interim > Report of the Task Force on Regional Plan for Goa 2021. It is very > educative. What Rajan Parrikar is saying pales to insignificance. > The syllabus and curricullum are no sweat. " The single biggest issue > regarding education is linked to the 'language of instruction' " reads > the 'sentence' also at page 68 of the IR of TF on RPG-2021 [full text > available in PDF format at www.savegoa.com] > > Yesterday was Mauvin Godinho's birthday. The CM laid a foundation > stone at Chicalim-Dabolim bank of the River Zuari for a Cable-Stayed > Bridge [in the good old days they used to call it a "Suspension > Bridge" but suspension is now a bad word!] to Santo Jacinto island. It > does not matter that there is already a pipe-bridge or causeway > connecting the former island to the mainland. > On Saturday, 10 May, 2008, I accompanied CNN-IBN's Environment > Editor,Bahar Dutt [sister of NDTV's Barkha Dutt] to Chicalim and Santo > Jacinto to film the clam and oyster fishing affected by the siltation > due to the pipe bridge, barge traffic and the dry docks where a casino > sship is under construction. 15 days later, Mauvin grabs the reason > behind the docu-film shoot to have the Panchayats of Santo Jacinto and > Chicalim thank him [at tax payers' cost] for reviviing the clam > fisheries by constructing the cable-stayed bridge that he was going to > erect anyway, Bahar Dutt or not! > > If almost every Goan feels like a cuckold with all this "Development" > of Goa, it is not without reason: it is getting raped even when one > blinks for a moment!No wonder than that "Development" is almost always > spelt with " " as horns. > > > Mog asundi. > > Miguel
