4 years on, education roadmap stuck in MoI mire

Updated on: Wednesday, January 04, 2012

The medium of instruction (MoI) controversy has ensured that the Goa State Integrated Education Policy-ready for the last one-and-a-half years-is not going to come into force any time soon.

The final draft of the policy recommends education in the mother tongue. The issue of whether English should be allowed as an MoI too in Goa's primary schools-the cabinet okayed grants to institutes seeking to change MoI from the mother tongue to English-is presently being heard in the Bombay high court at Goa.

While the court's decision is awaited, state education officials are unwilling to risk introducing the policy as the demand for both, the mother tongue and English as MoIs have fierce people's movements backing them.

"No matter which way the court decision swings it will be tough to implement the education policy as the government is sure to face the ire of one side or the other," a state official told TOI on Tuesday.

Till 2011, the state policy was to provide aid only to primary schools offering education in the mother tongue. Following protests from a large section of parents, the Digambar Kamat-led government changed the policy allowing schools receiving state aid to switch to English as MoI as grants continued.

The referendum for the switch was to be carried out by the schools under the supervision of the directorate of education. The decision did not go down well with supporters of the mother tongue. The MoI and the circular issued to schools after the academic year had begun were challenged in the high court by a former state education official on 'technical' grounds.

The much overdue education policy, drafted after three years of extensive consultations with educationists and stakeholders, meanwhile, is gathering dust. Announced as early as 2007 by Kamat, the policy seeks to streamline education from the pre-primary to higher secondary level and lays stress on application of knowledge and creating employable graduates by focusing on vocational education. Its implementation, of course, is a matter of breaking out of the MoI controversy.

Times of India

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