Come clear on MoI under NEP or face protest, govt told

Panaji: Former long-time RSS chief Subhash Velingkar has threatened to revive protests under the banner of Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM) if the state government does not make education in the mother tongue mandatory at the pre-primary and the primary level.
Velingkar said that despite several requests to meet chief minister Pramod Sawant with the demands, the appointment to BBSM is being deliberately delayed.
The government scheme of merging low enrolment Konkani and Marathi primary schools too is a conspiracy of the state to shut down more and more schools offering Konkani and Marathi as the medium of instruction (MoI), he said.
“Last year, the government kept the merger of schools on hold due to pressure from parents. This year, another four schools with mother tongue as the MoI have been shut in Mormugao and Bicholim. The BBSM condemns this move and demands that the government immediately stop this merger scheme,” said Velingkar.
He said that the government, on the other hand, has also stopped giving permissions to open new Konkani and Marathi primary schools, even as it continues to shut existing ones.
Velingkar said that as per the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the MoI at the pre-primary and the primary level has to be in the mother tongue. Yet, the government has made an announcement that education at this level will be in Konkani and Marathi and that scope is also being left open for English as MoI. “Such statements are suspicious and misleading,” he said.
The state government has announced implementation of the NEP starting from children aged 3 entering schools at pre-primary level from 2022-23.
“When the NEP is clear on this, who is the government pandering to by keeping the scope for English open? The government should come clear on this. The government is not doing its duty each time and forcing us to come on the streets for basic rights,” Velingkar said.
He said that the earlier government under Manohar Parrikar had violated the national education policies and those accepted globally to extend grants to English-medium primary schools in 2012.
“Instead of correcting the wrongs done, the present government is only strengthening those wrong policies. The government has only been lying so far on this subject. The government should come clear now whether it will discontinue the grants extended to English medium primary schools in view of NEP 2020 or not,” said Velingkar.