Dear friends,
In order to clarify the situation in my own mind vis a vis Fr. Mousinho's
claim, I had asked Dr. Ferdinando certain straightforward questions. I had
asked:
<<(1) How many "Jesuit schools and Convents" were there in the entire territory
of Goa during the Portuguese days? (2) How many candidates did they together
send up for the SSC examination? And what fraction did this number constitute
of the total number of candidates from Goa? (3) What was the SSC class
designated as in these schools (VII or XI)? (4) Did Dr. Ferdinando himself have
classmates in SSC who had earlier completed their primary in Portuguese before
joining Loyola in the V / VI / VII standard?>>
And I had also stated my experiences which prompted me to ask all these
questions.
In reply, the good doctor writes:
<< I had a few classmates in Loyola of the lowest strata of economical status
who used to come to school walking a couple of miles, bring lunch in a
?marmite? (?buthi? they called it in Concanim) composed of just cooked rice,raw
ground chillie massala (mirem), and a piece of dry fish; similar to what
labourers used to carry to the fields. So nobody was denied education of their
choice. If Mr. Borges attended Portuguese 'Escola Primaria" he should be the
one to know the reason why and not cast doubts on the then education system.>>
Does this answer even one of my questions? Did I ask about the economic status
of students that attended Loyola, their mode of transport, what they ate for
lunch? And, pray, what bearing does all this have on Fr. Mousinho's claim, or
on the denial or otherwise of the "education of their choice," a question I had
not raised at all? Did I cast doubts on the then education system? Therefore I
beseech the knowledgeable doctor to answer my questions to the point, and not
beat about the bush.
>From the information that Fredrick Noronha has put forth, it appears that
>there were about a dozen schools in the whole of GOA which provided
>instruction in English right from the beginning. These would constitute a drop
>in the ocean when we take into consideration the number of "Escola Primaria"s,
>Parochial schools conducted by the Choir Master ("mestre") of the respective
>church and those conducted in their houses (or 'vaddo' chapel) by private
>individuals. Again, those English medium schools also admitted mid-stream
>other students who had left the Portuguese stream at various stages.
>Consequently, the students they sent up for the SSC examination were not all
>direct entrants to the English stream.
Compared to the number of Portuguese medium primary schools as stated above,
there were hardly any Lyceum schools in the villages, not more than a dozen in
entire Goa. So where did all those Portuguese Primary students go to pursue
their education further? Obviously the English medium high schools, of which
there was at least one for a cluster of villages on an average in the Salcete,
Ilhas and Bardez talukas where the Catholic population was predominant. This
should give us an idea of the extent to which Fr. Mousinho's statement is a LIE.
Coming to Dr. Ferdinando's claim that during the Portuguese era "Parents did
have their choice" it is obvious that they did not. This is not to say that
they were deliberately denied a choice, but that the prevalent situation
ensured that they had no choice. For instance, my parents could not have sent
me to a Marathi or English medium school, even if they so desired, for the
simple reason that there was no such school nearby. So I was sent to the
nearest private Portuguese school two kilometres away; and we walked to go to
school twice a day (in other words, it was a full-day school in two sessions).
My relatives in Canacona could not send their children to a Portuguese or
English school for the same reason; they studied Marathi up to the Sixth(!)
before they (the boys) were old enough to trudge to the nearest Portuguese
school.
With this I shall await Dr. Ferdinando's response.
Mog asum.
Sebastian Borges
On 27 Mar 2011 Dr. Ferdinando dos Reis Falc?o <[email protected]>
wrote:
Fr. Mousinho wrote on ?O Heraldo? : ?During the Portuguese era,
Christians did primary education in Portuguese and switched over to English in
Std V. Hindus did primary studies in Marathi, switched over to Portuguese and
then to English. Neither Christians nor Hindus suffered in the switch-over:
both acquired proficiency in English after the switch-over.?
My last post a reply to Sebastian Borges? post was just to
enlighten him that the statement made by Fr. Mousinho was just a blatant LIE. It
would be incorrect to state that Fr. Mousinho is wrong, as this was a
deliberate LIE. Do not expect anyone to believe that Fr. Mousinho was ignorant
about these facts and believed what he stated to the press.
Mr. Sebastian Borges could get answers to his questions if he
could only reason out what was the population of Goa prior to 1961, and how
many people would send their children to schools. Parents did have their
choice. I had a few classmates in Loyola of the lowest strata of economical
status
who used to come to school walking a couple of miles, bring lunch in a
?marmite? (?buthi? they called it in Concanim) composed of just cooked rice,
raw ground chillie massala (mirem), and a piece of dry fish; similar to what
labourers
used to carry to the fields. So nobody was denied education of their choice. If
Mr. Borges attended Portuguese 'Escola Primaria" he should be the one to know
the reason why and not cast doubts on the then education system.
Dr. Ferdinando dos Reis Falc?o.
Sebastian Borges
