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FridayBALCAO
PROTECTION OF THE MAHADAI RIVER WHILE other rivers in the country face threats from pollution and other sources, the Mandovi river could end being a small stream if the Karnataka government blocks it as proposed, to tap the water for its own multi-purpose projects. At the Friday Balcao recently, Rajendra Kerkar, the secretary of the Mahadai Bachao Abhiyan, explained in painstaking detail the reason why the environmentalists and the people of Sattari, Ponda and even Karnataka have launched a strong movement to stall Karnataka's plans. Kerkar said, "We will have to face a lot of environmental problems because Goa's ecological balance will be disturbed totally. Hence it is the bounden duty of each Goan to protect the Mandovi, which plays a very vital role in shaping not only the State's cultural heritage but also its ecological wealth too. Our water-table, flora and fauna rely entirely on the Mandovi." The Vivekananda Society and the Green Cross comanise free awareness programmes in the village on the issue. At least three comanisations in Karnataka are supporting the Mahadai Bachao Andolan, Kerkar disclosed. Said Kerkar, "All dynasties settled in Goa because Goa was blessed with potable water but today no one is bothered about water pollution. Following excavation, several ancient water tanks have been discovered, because water harvesting was a concept even in the ancient times. Our duty is to preserve our springs, lakes and other natural resources. The village panchayats should be more concerned with this than even the government." Water Resources Minister Ramakant Khalap announced in the Goa Assembly on July 17 that the Goa government has managed to stall the proposal to divert the water from the basin of Mahadai river by the Karnataka government. At the intervention of PM A B Vajpayee, the Central Water Commission, after hearing the say of the representatives of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, passed an injunction directing Karnataka not to undertake work on the project without the consent of the other two States. Maharashtra was persuaded by the Goa government to be a party to the dispute. Khalap told the Goa Assembly that the State will have to plan projects of water conservation, drainage, etc, in the upper regions of its major rivers like Mandovi, Zuari and Galgibaga, to convince the Central Water Commission that we seriously require the water, which Karnataka seeks to divert.
The 40th Session of the Friday Balcao on July 28 at the Goa DESC was addressed by Anna and Valentine Coelho, from Socorro in Bardez, who besides being involved in other social activities, particularly the Marriage Encounter Movement, have adopted home schooling for their children. The children do not have to go to school every day, in sun or rain…they don't have to go for tuitions. The parents need not prepare the kids every morning for the school or reach them to school and go to collect them when the school closes, if the kids are too small to manage by themselves. The children don't pick up vices from their peers and get lot of time for play and other creative activities. Vally, an electronics engineer, and Anna, a trained nursery teacher, were both brought up in Mumbai and moved to Goa only in 1992. Though living in nature's green grandeur at Socorro is a pleasure, their disadvantage was the lack of a good school closeby. Totally "disillusioned" with the changing educational pattern in Goa, they evolved a golden mean of a non-formal education based on the pattern followed by the Salesian schools. In this system, the children have to appear for public exams in the VI Std and the SSCE. "We took the risk. Our friends and family supported us in the venture. Of course, sometimes the elders felt that our children too should go to school like other children," Anna said. They knew about parents, who were teaching their children at home but they were getting the books and programmes from the USA. They would post the assignment and get the feedback from there. This process was too costly. So they found out whether "it was possible to teach the children at home or whether there were rules saying that we couldn't teach them at home, and what would happen if our children wanted to appear for the X Std exam." They use all the Goa Board books as per the syllabus and other books for reference. For the 10th std they have the Open School syllabus, and the exams offer a choice subjects and wide options, and can be offered only after a student completes 15 years of age. They have been inspired by a lovely books called "Catholic Home Schooling", written by Mary Kay Clark. They concede that it was no easy matter and that home schooling can hardly be recommended to other parents. The system suited their special circumstances. Of course, it involved a lot of sacrifice and special efforts, to be parents and teachers at the same time. They had to study the lessons thoroughly, patiently before they could impart instructions to their children. Now their children study on their own and consult the parent-teachers only in case of difficulties. They have already adapted themselves to the new type of schooling. Being Catholic kids, they are never at a loss where peer group and social mixing is concerned. The children have the opportunity to meet at the Church, at catechism classes, and in the village itself. The parents take them to the Sports Authority of Goa for sports activities. Vally said, "We took them to the Bal Bhavan so they could mix with other students", and where they learnt music, dancing and other things. "If they did not like something, we tried to change it and make it a little more interesting. We make them realise that they have to learn certain essential values, particularly religious education," the Coelho couple claims. The other advantage of home schooling is that the children don't have the tension to rush to school and are better prepared mentally to absorb what is being taught. The classes are five days a week. Anna said, "Being a teacher myself, I was aware that sometimes teachers are not good examples to children. There are teachers who used bad language, smoke in front of the students, while we tell the children that these are not good things. Teachers should set a good examples to students at least while they are at the school premises." Since Anna is the mother and teacher rolled in one, the children receive adequate care and attention, which is not possible in a classroom packed with students and the teacher unable to cope up with the unruly lot, while having to ensure that the prescribed portion is completed in time. The results of Anna and Vally's endeavour in the "learning experience" reflects in the fact that Nadisha, the eldest child, has already completed X Std at the Open School examination level. She will carry on with the same system for Std XII. She gets enough time in between study and this time is being spent effectively to learn courses in Shorthand, hairstyling, etc. Nadisha, who represented by the Bal Bhavan twice in creative writing competitions at the all-India level, however, says that she would have preferred a normal school and be part of the student community, particularly, because of "competitions. I can work better under pressure". Nimish, their son is 12, loves computers and is obsessed with writing programmes for computer games. Their home school is also a curious place, where even the grand parents form a part of the overall "learning experience". The Coelho kids watch various people at work too in their home, which prepares home-made traditional, Goan sweets. The family has grown to two daughters and three sons, and in the congenial, joint family environs they learn to adjust, care and love each other. The rare experiment is extended further; periodically, the entire family-from the youngest to the oldest-joins in a family programme, where each one of them have to perform some item or other. Problem of Secuirity Guards The fortnightly session of Friday Balcao on August 24 focussed on the rights of Security Guards in Goa. The session was addressed by Nain Singh Oli, president of the All-Goa Independent Security Union. Joel D'Souza |