Medium of Instructions – Give Grants to All Schools

Sumita R. Dias

Mr. Frank Anthony, M.P., in his speech on October 20, 1985, at New Delhi, during the Indian National Congress Centenary celebrations, said, “That it was on his resolution in Parliament, in 1959, that when what came to be known as the Nehru formula was announced, namely, that English shall be the alternate/official language for as long as the non-Hindi speaking people so desire. Today, English is perhaps the de facto link language especially between the North and the South and in higher education. English was India’s window on the world’s progress in science and technology. In a case argued by him in the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court affirmed that, constitutionally, English was as much an Indian language as any one of the languages in the VIII Schedule, because it was the recognized mother tongue of a recognized Indian community, the Anglo-Indians.”

Our late Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, while addressing his last meeting in Goa, having in his mind the political unrest caused, on account of language agitations and medium of instructions, stressed the need to maintain English at all levels.

The present Congress (I) ministry ruling Goa, I hope, would be wise enough to give grants to all English medium primary schools and enact a fresh ordinance to make Konkani a compulsory subject in all schools in Goa, irrespective of medium. Medium of instructions can never destroy our old historical, social and cultural background.