In The Name Of Education -- By Saturnino Rodrigues, Seraulim

In the words of the late Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Today, the Late Nelson Mandela would have had another opinion if he were in Goa noticing the huge mushrooming of private schools and nurseries in the name of education. He would have probably said that “Education is the most powerful channel to generate money for these private entrepreneurs and change their fortune”.

Education commonly is divided formally into such stages as pre-school or kindergarten, primary, secondary and then college and university. It is now slowly become a fashion to admit a small tiny child in these privately set schools due to the fact that both parents are working without realizing that most of these play schools and day care centres are run by cheap, untrained personnels and are set up by business minded people with no education institutional background. In fact, parents are putting the life of their child at risk, no parent will know if the child was abused or even beaten after they dropped the child in these centres or so called pre-primary school.

The point here is to highlight on how Goa is exploited by the mushrooming of these private pre-primary schools and day care centres are run by a few franchises from Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere. As we move through the villages of Goa, we could read hoardings of such schools on road side offering educational services in English for tiny kids as old as one and half years of age. At this age, one could wonder if a child can converse and understand any given instructions. This is the tender age where they should be clinging around their parents for warmth and affection. But the mushrooming of these private schools, their curriculum and fancy brochure has blinded some of the parents to admit their wardens in these schools at a tender age. This is something equivalent to child abuse by the parents as well as by so called schools. For the schools, this is an opportunity to make business and for the parents, to keep off the child from home, from the required tender care they long from the parents. Considering the fees charged by these private schools, one wonders if it is an educational institution and this clearly specifies that it is nothing but a business that is out of reach of the common man or the poor Goans. This all in the name of providing education which is a business which has got no initial investment and or huge capital, the returns are guaranteed and high yield achieved in a short time. They have a hidden story behind them and surfing on the internet to find out information of these so called schools will reveal more as there are hundreds of complaints by the affected parents who learnt the trick of this money making racket too late.

RTI documents obtained from the Goa Education Department revealed the foulest part of these schools. A particular school with a hi-fi name claiming to be having the required permissions and displaying a certain reference number from the education department turned out to be a bogus one. They have no licenses nor follow proper norms of setting up the schools. They just come and set up shop in posh residential colonies targeting the local populace and those of corporate employees. Education department also states that the prescribed age to admit a child to formal education is three and half years. The modus of operation here is to target the young children of the affluent people only to make money. It is commonsense that child as young as one and half year cannot talk properly and how can one expect to send such a child to these schools? Why do these schools not apply for proper permissions? It is because, legally, they will never get permissions to admit a child of one and half year in these money making schools. The premises housing such schools are either shops or residential houses which again breaks the rules of setting up a school. According to the guidelines provided by the Education Department, no school shall be set up without the proper infrastructure and that includes proper parking space, prescribed size of classrooms, play area and authorization from the Fire and Safety Department and in such area where the surroundings are in conducive environment.

With the Goa governments one after another dragging on with the MoI issue, this has become a fodder for these money making franchises to easily operate in Goa. A few complaints to the education department are left in the cold storage, in these cases, it should have been acted swiftly and stopped the exploitation of the child. Women and Child welfare commissions should have acted swiftly upon receiving complaints along with other relevant departments who are in-charge of the affairs including the local village panchayat and the police. Since our governments, one after another are dragging the MoI issue, the business has become lucrative for monetary gains rather than education, let not these money spinning business houses take Goans for a ride.

It is high time that the Goa government should crack a whip on these private, unrecognized and illegal so called schools and call it a day. And it is the duty of each parent to do a pre-assessment of these schools and not just get attracted to these so called fancy school names for their kids. Let not the child be a burden and be burdened in the name of education in unprofessional and unrecognized centres some of which are a nuisance to the general public with these centres set up in residential areas where atmosphere is not conducive in any form. Let education be true education imparting knowledge provided by real educationists and not by those with monetary intentions.

In Goa Kidzee pre-primary school is served with a STOP NOTICE by the Seraulim Panchayat to stop operations from the 3rd of May but yet they are defying. The school is being operated in a 4 bedroom residential house with no parking space a nd absolutelyno permissions. The same school was forced to vacate premises by the residents of St Mary's colony, Benaulim after a incident with a lawyers car (Advocate Emerico).