Congratulations to Mr Ferrao on the post below. After reading some of the most vitriolic, jingoistic and communal posts on the subject of MOI, I am glad that some one has had the sense to state some simple facts in plain English.
The other simple facts are: No one including Goa government ever stopped parents from sending their children to primary schools where MOI was English. So far, parents would have had to pay for this privilege since it was decided by successive governments including congress governments that MOI should be either Konkani or Marathi which were accepted as regional languages. All children studying in Goa had access to secondary schools where MOI was English. This was not a privilege reserved for the children of Manohar Parrikar, Shashikala Kakodkar or Uday Bhembre as it was repeatedly written by protagonists of English as MOI for primary schools. All these schools are and have always been fully funded by the dept of education, govt of Goa. I wish more people like Mr Ferrao took the trouble of writing regularly on this forum. Anil Desai From: Melvyn Ferrao <[email protected]> To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <[email protected]>, Goanet <[email protected]>, [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] Manohar Parrikar Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Please get your facts right everyone. Manohar Parrikar studied in Marathi till secondary education and went on to join the country's premier university. His children did their primary schooling in Marathi and are doing well in their fields. He is supporting local languages for the reason that they help in building the fundamentals of the child that helps in further education. He is still Goa's best CM ever considering the administrative efficiency, dedication and commitment he showed in his short-lived tenure. People brag about communalism but conveniently ignore the good things he did such as building infrastructure for St. Xavier's feast or IFFI. This tag of communalism should not be applied to BJP in Goa. Please do not ignore that there are fan clubs on Orkut and Facebook for Parrikar, but not any other past CM and understandably none of the current CM. The members are educated Goan youth who are not fools but people who see hope unlike internet warriors who only know to type long criticising emails in online forums and cannot differentiate between bad and better. It is time Goans unite and vote in favour of administration for a better future. Melvyn Ferrao Agacaim
