BJP differs from Sangh view, backs grant of funds to English-medium schools in Goa

NEW DELHI: The BJP central leadership has backed Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar by supporting his government’s decision to continue with grant of funds to English-medium primary schools in the state. The RSS leaders in the state have opposed this decision insisting that the funds should only be granted to schools that follow Konkani and Marathi as the medium of education.
Overlooking the Sangh’s demand, the central BJP leadership has held that the stand taken by the Goa CM, the Goa BJP chief and earlier by former CM Manohar Parikkar, that the 129 English-medium schools that were earlier run by churches and were converted into government school by the previous government will continue to get government funds but no new English medium schools will come under the same rule.
While BJP endorses the Sangh line that mother tongue should be the medium of instruction for primary schools, it has refused to create any further confusion over grants to these schools that have already been included in the government’s list. This is to ensure that 29,000 students studying in the 129 schools do not suffer. The decision of BJP could generate some heartburn for Sangh leaders who have been demanding that funds to these schools should be stopped.
In January, Parrikar had blamed the previous Congress government in Goa for "messing up" with the issue of choice of medium of instruction (MOI) for schools in the state. He had also underlined that mother-tongue will remain as the medium of instruction for students. In an apparent reference to the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), backed by BJP before 2012 assembly polls but which has now turned into the critic over the MOI policy issue, Parrikar had said BJP workers should disassociate themselves from forums that slam the government.
Parrikar had said, "We reiterate our stand that mother-tongue will be the medium of instruction. Our stand will not change. But if I discontinue grants to the schools, we will have teachers from those schools who will be in surplus." He had also said the government has decided against giving grants to new English medium schools.
RSS leader Manmohan Vaidya told TOI that “the Sangh view which is shared by many educationists is that primary education should be imparted in the mother tongue, as it is easier for children to understand better most subjects in a language they are familiar with. It is not necessary to understand English to learn other subjects and the Sangh has passed a resolution on the same line,” while specifying that he was not on the Goa issue in particular. Vaidya, however added that, “this does not mean that RSS is against English education.”