CENTRE READY WITH MOI FORMULA FOR PRIMARIES OPTING FOR ENGLISH

PANJIM: The Centre is ready with its formula to solve the medium of instruction imbroglio in Goa. While no details of the formula are available, sources said that grants will be released to government-aided primary schools wishing to switch over to the English medium.

AICC general secretary in charge of Goa desk Jagmeet Singh Brar on Monday said the "broad framework" for resolving the issue will be submitted to the Goa government on Tuesday or Wednesday. "As we were consulted by the chief minister, we held deliberations on the subject in detail and are preparing a broad framework which is advisory in nature," Brar said from New Delhi on Monday.

Asked to elaborate on the proposal, he declined saying it will be made public soon. "It will be sent to Goa on Tuesday evening unless there is some delay. In that case it will be on Wednesday. Most probably it will be Tuesday evening," Brar said.

The state government, based on the framework, will then have to come out with a policy. "Modalities have been discussed but education being a state subject, they will have to go into the details and fine tune it," Brar said. Sources in the state government said the outcome of the series of meetings and consultation held over the last one week, will be announced this week. Whether there will be any change from what was discussed in New Delhi is not clear.

Sources said though there is much to cheer for the pro-English lobby there is no clarity as to what the final formula will be, but grants to government-aided primary schools is very likely. T here are 196 governmentaided primary schools imparting education in Konkani/Marathi/regional languages in the state. Konkani or Marathi likely to be a compulsory subject up to high school.

The government may not easily give grants to English medium private schools due to a huge financial burden it will incur annually, sources said. These schools are 140 in number. Giving grants to them this year would be difficult as necessary provision needs to be made in the budget, an official said.

If the government gives the choice of medium of instruction to parents for their wards in governmentaided schools, it will not incur any financial burden as these institutions are already receiving grants, the official explained. In New Delhi on Thursday, human resources development minister Kapil Sibal was of the view that though the RTE Act talks about elementary education in one's mother tongue as far as practicable, English could also be considered for government grants.

"The financial aspect has to be taken care of by the state government," is what Sibal told Goa leaders, sources said. On the issue of free elementary education, he is learnt to have clarified that this is restricted only to government-run schools. Besides chief minister Digambar Kamat and education minister Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate, those present for the meeting with Sibal included PWD minister Churchill Alemao, transport minister Ramkrishna Dhavlikar, power minister Aleixo Sequeira, deputy speaker Mauvin Godinho and state Congress president Subhash Shirodkar. At the meeting, Alemao brought to Sibal's notice that states like Kerala have given freedom of choice to parents to choose the medium of instruction. He also tried to convince the Union minister that the demand for grants to English medium primary schools is not restricted to Salcete but is the demand of parents across the state.

"I have personally seen this in Ponda, Pernem, Canacona and Satari," he said. Another member also brought to the notice of the minister that applications are coming from talukas like Pernem and Bicholim for setting up English medium schools. The politicians also brought to the HRD minister's notice that NCP chief Sharad Pawar has supported the cause of giving grants to English medium schools.