From: Elvino Rodrigues <[email protected]> Subject: [Goanet] article on medium of instruction (Adv. Peter D'souza)
Here is something concrete for any one who want to understand better why we should save what is withering away...... COMMENT: As I have previously said, I respect Adv. Jos Peter D'Souza's skills in debating and semantics. Unfortunately, 20 years down the line, the experiment to introduce Konkani as the medium of Instruction has failed miserably since the biggest votary of Konkani MOI - The Diocesan Society of Education and the extended Arch Diocesan Board of Education - has decided it was all a big mistake. Without the support of the DSE and the ABE, support for primary education in Konkani MOI collapses. There are a few things that one ought to consider without emotion and without semantics. 1. Konkani needs tremendous development in the field of literature and vocabulary before it can be used to teach science and technical subjects. 2. In other countries and within our own country, in states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, one can study from KG to Ph D without the support of any other language. Can this be done in Konkani MOI except perhaps in subjects like languages? 3. The issue of education in primary school in Konkani in the Devnagri Script needs to be settled and the bogeys surrounding the Roman Script Konkani should be stilled once and for all. Wasn't Konkani sustained by the writings of Konkani writers in the Roman Script through the 450 years of Imperialistic, colonial rule? 4. Why should we be running dog lackeys of the Marathi lobby which insists on the Devnagri Script to subjugate a section of the Goan populace, the very section that kept Konkani alive through the 450 years they were under the foreign yoke? 5. If India has strengths in the BPO world, it is because India scores over China in the field of English speaking and fluency. Doesn't the BPO world provide employment to many Goans? Let us view the issue in the cold light of reason and keep semantics and emotion and passion away from something that will affect the futures of our children. Adv. D'Souza by his very own admission states that he was raised in a family which spoke English and he was educated in English. Is his understanding in any way? So also as he says did a whole generation of Indians. While Adv. D'Souza was in Bombay, did he not learn to speak Marathi fluently, and later in Goa Konkani too? -- Tony de Sa. tonydesa at gmail dot com ^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
