Of unproductive holidays and suck-ups
More school, less holidays for Goa's 'unproductive' students, a late night transfer of a senior cop, Tito's (supposed) IPO and more in this week's edition
Here we are, after another week, a week in which (like many others) there is little positive to write home about. Forgive the pessimism but, I’m hoping that at least in telling things the way they are and the way I see them, many (or at least a few) will find common ground and hopefully come together to create something fruitful.
Of unproductive holidays and suck-ups
Case in point is the Goa government’s decision to shift the start of the academic year to April 1 and hold classes (instructional days) for students from Classes VI to X and XII in the month of April. This is a major deviation from the established practice of commencing the academic year in the month of June, that coincides with the onset of the monsoon and ensuing cooler temperatures.
The decision was formally communicated to schools this week via a terse circular that only said that “the government has decided” to commence the academic year from the first of April with the rider that classes will be held up to 11:30 am.
There are, as you might have guessed, several questions about this starting with: Who’s stupid idea is this?
To me personally, this brings a sense of deja vu, to a time not too long ago -- the beginning of the Covid pandemic and ensuing lockdown to be precise.
As you may recall India as a whole had the most total(itarian) lockdown in the world after China, where people who were out looking for food were being caned by the cops, made to do sit ups, or otherwise humiliated by the law enforcement who apparently knew of only one way to ‘enforce’ a lockdown. For them it was no different than a curfew.
What you also might recall is that Goa’s lockdown (at least initially) was even more severe than the national one. Here the lockdown first began with a declaration of national 14-hour “Janata curfew” between 7am and 9pm on March 22, 2024 (a Sunday) with the customary thali banging at 5pm. Except that in Goa it didn’t end with that.
Via a video message, the state was informed that in Goa the ‘curfew’ was unexpectedly being extended for another two days until March 25. In the interim, however, the national 21-days lockdown was announced on March 24. In effect this meant that the residents of Goa -- locals, tourists, visitors, labourers -- had no warning for what was to come. What was supposed to be a 14-hour “curfew” ended up being a 25-day lockdown that in Goa was so severe that even essential stores were not allowed to remain open -- people -- from students staying in hostels, to daily wage labourers and overnight travellers, quite literally went hungry.
Arbitrariness and mismanagement were the only constants in those bleak times. It would take several weeks until supply chains were restored only after the government tried -- and failed -- to launch its own volunteer-led delivery system of essentials.
Why am I telling you all this? Those were dark days, no doubt, but not because Covid was sweeping through the population back then, but because in his eagerness to be more loyal than the king, Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant rolled out a harsh regime that even back then seemed mind-numbingly unreasonable. Members of his own party complained against him to the higher ups, and it was only then that he was forced to relent.
It’s the same story unfolding all over again -- this time with the roll out of the national education policy in the state.
There is no doubt, and the Chief Minister himself has made no bones of the fact that, he is eager to ensure that Goa is among the first, if not the first state to completely implement the National Education Policy. It’s implementation has already begun.
What being first will achieve is quite unclear to me, but nonetheless here we are and the hurry with which the NEP is being implemented has already been highlighted.
The issue at hand this time is that of classes in April. This was a proposal that has been around for a while -- but was not officially deliberated with teachers or parents, never mind consultations -- until one fine day (Thursday, January 30) the official circular was issued.
It was only after the circular was issued that secretary of Higher Education Prasad Lolayekar addressed the media -- at the media’s request, in an informal setting on the sidelines of another official event, that for the first time we -- the parents, teachers, educators and the state at large -- got to hear possible reasons why the change was effected.
April is an academically unproductive month for students, Lolayekar said unflinchingly, and with a serious face.
Really? Was he even listening to himself? How many of you, no matter where you are now in life, would look back at your summer holidays and say that those were days spent unproductively?
There were other reasons offered too -- that if classes are held in April, they will be able to complete the NEP mandated minimum hours without the need for whole day school, that Goa’s academic year will be in sync with central boards and that of several other states, that the terms will be more balanced, and that the government will be able to fulfill its side of the bargain when it comes to central sponsored schemes like mid-day meal, etc, besides also being aligned with other central boards like the CBSE and the ICSE, etc.
The syncing of academic years is the only explanation that appears to make some sense (, none of these explanations seem to make any sense. And even the need for classes in April to complete the required number of hours has been questioned. According to the All Goa Secondary School Teachers Association (AGSSTA), the NCF (national curriculum framework) mandates 1045 instructional hours in an academic year, a target that is already being achieved under the current system.
There are other questions too. Schools are used as correction and examination centres for SSC and other exams. Other schools use the months of April and May to complete maintenance works that cannot be safely undertaken when students are around and cannot be completed in one month -- May -- which often has unpredictable weather.
Unsurprisingly, teachers and parents are upset. But the headmasters seem to have no problem with it. Although, it must be noted, the headmasters’ toeing the line shouldn’t really come as a surprise, since, as many in the education sector know, the state government, which controls the appointments of staff to aided schools, has been withholding NOCs for fresh recruitment for several years now, holding up the filling of permanent posts of teachers and other staff. There’s the very real fear that if they speak up, the retribution will be immediate.
But more than that, even if you believe that giving students only a one month holiday in the summer is a tradeoff you are willing to make, the question that remains is: in exchange for what? Are our schools equipped to handle classes in April? Is the department, which doesn’t have school textbooks ready to be delivered to the students until the academic year is well underway (sometimes as late as August) going to be prepared for the change that is announced barely two months ahead of its implementation?
None of the reasons being offered make sense. It’s almost as if they decided to make the change and then thought about how to justify this.
That's even before we consider how the whole change has insidiously been rolled out -- the lack of consultation, the denials and with the chief minister himself -- deliberately sidestepping a question on the issue, only saying he would talk about it separately. He is yet to.
If you are so convinced of your decision, then why not own up to it? Or is it as Adv Carlos (the only MLA who has yet spoken on the issue) says: “It looks like there is one man who is dictating how to do this, one man who sits in his house. He doesn't think of other factors. It is only his way and no other way and this is the way it has to be done and the government is accepting it?”
“Is the Department of Education so insensitive? In UP (Uttar Pradesh) and even in Bihar I've seen the educational system has followed things in a much better way of following NEP,” Adv Carlos said.
Let children be children and don’t be a killjoy like the Chief Minister who even suggested that schools should organise picnics to science centres and not beaches. It’s not like our beaches are worthy of school picnics anymore (unlike when we were kids), but why should school be all about work and no play? So that you can grow up to be like those suck-ups aka teachers’ pets, who end up being made the class monitor, but universally hated?
Yeah! What the state needs right now is leadership and not a suck-up.
Bajrang Dal calls the shots
South Goa superintendent of Police Sunita Sawant was transferred via a late night transfer order that was communicated via wireless message.
While initially there was some speculation regarding the reason for her transfer, it soon became clear that the transfer order was issued within hours after it became known that she had sought intelligence information on the activities of the Bajrang Dal in south Goa.
Sawant is no ordinary cop. She was current dispensation’s preferred detective when it came to sensitive cases like the Tarun Tejpal case, the case against Mickky Pacheco for abetting the suicide of Nadia Joelle Torrado, among others.
Sawant’s transfer comes a little less than a year after she was appointed to the post, which, according to some, violates a Supreme Court directive that police personnel need to spend at least two years in a post before they can be transferred.
There are still others, who, however, continue to harbour doubts over what the real reason behind the transfer was. To them, all I can say is this: the Goa administration, and especially the Chief Minister have had ample opportunities to clarify that it was not the case if it indeed wasn’t the case.
It means one of two things: Either that she was really transferred because she sought information about the Bajrang Dal or that they are happy for people to believe it was the case.
Neither of the two possibilities is particularly reassuring. It is well known that the Bajrang Dal, which didn’t have a presence in Goa until two years ago, is up to no good.
More than that, this incident is a reminder of how far we’ve fallen. There was once a time when the Pramod Muthalik (remember the pink-chaddi campaign?) of Sri Rama Sene fame was banned from Goa for simply threatening to open a unit of the Sri Rama Sene in Goa to fight the pub, drugs and sex culture.
And here we have the Bajrang Dal, whose vigilantes conducted an extrajudicial inspection of beef butchers’ vehicles ahead of Christmas leading to clashes between the butchers and the vigilantes and a consequent shortage. And it is the cops who have to face the music.
As a Goa-origin journalist said on Twitter (now called X): The message couldn’t be clearer.
Tito’s and the IPO
The owners of Tito’s, a beach-shack-turned-nightclub that is all the rage among tourists, is reportedly going for a 1,000-crore IPO or so the reports claimed.
I, for one, am disinclined to believe any of this humbug. For the simple reason, I’ve been hearing of the Tito’s IPO at least four to five times in the last five years. More than that, in 2021, Ricardo aka Ricky, the co-owner of Tito's, told the whole world that he had sold his business, lock stock and barrel for an undisclosed sum thanks to the harassment he was facing from the local authorities. He later sought to clarify that he meant the operations (maybe he meant sub-let?). Either way…
If that were true, then what IPO is he talking about now? And if that wasn’t true, then why should this latest claim be any closer to the truth?
Maybe this time it’s for real. Who knows? Going public is easier said than done, and requires you subject yourself to strict accounting standards (now that public investors money is involved). Got to think, twice about it, eh?
That’s all I have for you this week. Make sure you comment or write in, should you have something, anything to say.
You are also welcome to write in with leads and tip-offs or anything that you think might be interesting enough to include here.
As always, please share and help spread the word.
Until next week, then. Tchau!
This is a trend, in democratic countries around the world, where politicians deliberately do not consult with voters, on implementing new ideas and policies. The public must resist through peaceful means if they disagree. For all the reasons mentioned in your article such as repairs to school buildings etc, this new imposition on the education sector , is plain wrong.
Trips for students to the seaside can be every educational. Students do not always have to be escorted to the inside of a concrete building to gape in awe at specimens and artifacts found in nature. At the seaside, they can be taught about the sea, the fishes in the sea, the sky and space, the sands and the trees and plants that flourish close to the sea and maybe about global warming too.
Great write up! The only bit that i can add is that it might help families who struggle to provide their children with supervised semi structured time. Ofcourse the freedom and agency to opt for this should remain with the parents.