Goa: Church to open more schools to improve education

To ameliorate education and to encourage students to do better in their national level, the Churches in Goa has decided to open more schools under national boards.

According to a survey by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) conducted in February, standard of education has deteriorated in the state and students are under–performing in their exams.

Goa, which became an independent state in India in 1987, follows two national boards for high school education, the Certificate of Secondary Education and Central Board of Secondary Education.

Churches in Goa and Daman, is set to open two schools under the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education, while the Society of the Missionaries of St. Francis Xavier, a Goa–based congregation popularly known as Pilar Society, will start a school under the Central Board of Secondary Education.

Antonio Fernandes, an education consultant, says the Church move is an attempt to correct a weakness inherent in its decision to use Konkani to avail of government grants, because it could not support teachers' salaries.

Another reason for using Konkani, Fernandes told UCA News, was that the Church had earlier campaigned to make this Goa's official language, and not using it would have been seen as disloyal. However, the shift to Konkani affected the students' "competitive edge" in using English, he noted.