The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa on Tuesday announced the formation of yet another advisory committee of experts and educationists to resolve the contentious issue of Medium of Instruction (MoI) at the primary level by submitting a report in four months. At present, the party is caught between the warring groups of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-led Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch and Forum for Rights of Children’s Education (FORCE).
While the BBSM is holding protests against the government for continuing grants to Arch Diocese primary schools with English as MoI, FORCE wants the government to extend grants to all schools irrespective of MoI by leaving the choice of MoI at the primary level to parents.
Announcing the formation of the committee, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said it would submit its report in four months.
While in the Opposition ahead of the 2012 State Assembly polls, the BJP fully backed the demand of the BBSM, agitated under their umbrella and promised to stop grants given to primary schools with English as MoI. But after coming to power, the BJP government took a Cabinet decision on June 6, 2012, which stated that teaching at the primary level shall be in the mother tongue of a child, either in Konkani or Marathi as the case may be. Simultaneously, under pressure from Catholic MLAs from within the BJP as well as those backing the government, it also decided to continue financial grants to 136 primary schools run by the Archdiocese, categorising them as minority schools, thus inviting the ire of the BBSM.
