English as a subject not enough, says NCP

PANJIM, GOA : The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has thanked Education Minister Luizinho Faleiro for heeding to the party’s demand to reintroduce English at the primary level but hastened to add that the introduction of English as a subject was not enough.
In a press note, party general Secretary and Spokesman Surendra Furtado said that unless English was made a medium of instruction at primary level the knowledge of English for jobs will not be sufficient.
He said, past experience has shown that without the day-to-day usage of English, the required fluency is lost and what eventually is churned out by schools are students who know a smatter of the language rather than the working knowledge to get the much sought after while collar jobs.
Furtado pointed out that the medium of instructions was an aberration since the switch over from English to the vernacular language came forth due to grants and nothing else.
He said, teaching the students in either English or Konkani as medium of instructions at primary level and then switching over to English at secondary level is fraught with danger and pointed out to the numerous dropouts at the secondary level because there is no “fluency in English”.
The NCP spokesman advocated Konkani as a compulsory subject at the primary level rather than the English in the wake of Goan tendency to immigrate for jobs, even work at call centers where English is the soul of the job.