An uneasy year for education sector

Updated on: Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The year slipping by has been the most troublesome for the education sector as it got itself tangled in the transformation of old policies spanning language of instruction to curriculum and the evaluation system.

While new challenges are awaiting the education sector in Goa, 2011 has only just prepared the ground for battle leaving many issues unsettle.

Language is often directly linked to the identity of people. So, it was natural that when the state government decided to alter its policy on MoI for elementary education, the issue became the most discussed and debated subject.

Everyone had a take on the issue, irrespective of whether they were directly affected by the state's decision or not. The issue began with the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, of the central government and ended up in the high court of Bombay at Goa, but not before there were several public meetings, mud slinging matches, allegations and counter allegations, and politicos taking sides.

Over 90% schools in Goa are either government schools or privately managed institutions provided funds by the government. Up to Class IV, the government grants aid to only schools providing education in the mother tongue. A majority of schools offer English as the MoI from Class V onwards.

As the RTE Act categorizes upper primary education- that extends up to Class VIII -as elementary education, parents and schools were apprehensive about the mother tongue policy being extended till Class VIII. With no clarity coming from the state education department on the issue, parents and schools pushed the government to change its existing mother tongue policy for primary education. Parents in the movement christened English as 'potachi bhaas' or a language essential to earn a living in the globalized world.

The parents' show-of-strength meetings for English received an overwhelming response and won over the counter-movement for the mother tongue (with almost an equal amount of support). Chief minister Digambar Kamat's government decided to provide primary schools an option to switch over to English if students' parents supported the decision in a referendum to be held by the schools under the education department's supervision. In announcing the new decision, the state government even set aside the report of a state-appointed committee whose recommendations had led Goa to the mother tongue policy in the 90s.

The decision did not go down well with supporters of the mother tongue movement. Former chairperson of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education P R Nadkarni then dragged the state to court over 'faulty procedures' in implementing the new MoI policy.

As the matter is close to being decided in court, the issue continues to simmer.

RTE's no detention policy up to Class VIII is the other provision of the act which took the state by storm before the academic year could begin in June 2011. The state decided to implement the policy after the results for the year 2010 were announced.

The decision led to a marathon struggle between the All Goa School Headmasters' Association and directorate of education, with school heads refusing to implement the decision where they had to promote students that had failed even as the Goa education rules were not appropriately amended for the purpose.

An intervention in time by education minister Atanasio Monserrate settled the issue with a promise to put the necessary systems in place for a no-fail policy from the new academic year provided the headmasters promote students failed during the previous year.

The Goa board decided to switch from the existing marks system to the absolute grading system at the Class X and XII public exams in 2011. The board had been preparing ground for the move for a while with the grading system already in force in Classes IX and XI. As it was the first year of implementation of the grades at the public exams, the board decided to include marks as well as grades on marksheets to make it easier for students to comprehend the system.

But the board, it appears, bargained for more than its share of controversy with the decision. Students were stunned when results for the Class XII board exams were announced as several hundred received a score much lower than their expectations. The board was forced to review the calculations of grades and it turned out that over 300 students who had actually cleared the exams had been declared to have failed.

The board was asked by the state government to review its grading system. Marks and grading system will now continue alongside for the board exams in April 2012 too.

While new policies of the state caused havoc, the old promises remained unfulfilled. Prominent among them was the issue of computer teachers which refused to die down in 2011 as well. In fact, matters were further complicated when government-aided schools with Catholic managements refused placement of the government-trained computer teachers, even as the issue was about to be settled with the process of appointment being in the final stage.

Several issues like the teachers' demand for part B scales and the clash over the no-fail policy were resolved in 2011, but issues like the appointment of computer teachers will be carried over for solutions to 2012. The coming year is set to witness even fiercer battles as the government faces a tough task over the implementation of the MoI following the expected final verdict of the court.

The Goa board has to set records right with implementation of the grading system in the April 2012 public examinations. And issues like full-day schooling will put the state government up for an acid test as the new academic year will be the last for the state to implement provisions of the RTE as per central government directives, even as full-day schooling is being vehemently opposed by teachers and parents.

Times of India

An uneasy year for education sector

More Education news