MOI panel gets fifth extention till Dec 31

Panaji: The medium of instruction (MOI) committee formed by the state government has received an extension for the fifth time to submit its report. The extension has been granted upto December 31, 2017. The 17-member panel was formed more than a year ago on July 15, 2016.

The committee is to decide on whether state grants should be extended to primary schools where the medium of instruction is other than the regional languages. The panel was initially given 120 days to submit its report.

It was to hold meetings with various stakeholders like parent teacher associations of schools, school managements etc across Goa to arrive at its findings. On gathering all the views, the committee will meet to analyse the inputs, after which it will submit its report to the state government.

But one year after its formation in July, the MOI panel had not even started writing its report and had not even completed conducting all its meetings. Twelve meetings of the committee had taken place and two more were to be held, following which the committee will start going through the findings and begin writing the report.

The panel members, headed by former director of higher education Bhaskar Nayak, was of the view they lost out on time during the assembly elections held in Goa and therefore the extentions were needed.

The Forum for Rights of Children to Education (FORCE) and Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) had already "rejected" the 17-member committee when it was formed calling it delaying tactics on the part of the government to decide on the issue.