Goa Assembly meet on drafting bill on MoI remains inconclusive

An important meeting of the Goa Legislative Assembly on drafting of a proposed bill on the medium of instruction (MoI) to be adopted in schools remained inconclusive today even as some members expressed doubts on whether such bill would be placed before the House.
The meeting of the select committee of the Assembly, chaired by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, decided to seek more data on the exact number of schools and the students, before taking any stand on the medium of instruction.
The state government has already announced its policy to have regional languages (Konkani and Marathi) as the medium of imparting education and that English medium schools will also be given grants.

The policy is yet to be formulated into a proper bill and the decision is pending before the select committee.
"We did not decide anything. We will have to hold another sitting before formulating the proposed bill," Parsekar told reporters after emerging from the meeting in evening.
Meanwhile, Congress legislator and former CM Digambar Kamat said the cabinet note which had passed the MoI policy was circulated during the meeting along with the draft copy of the proposed bill.

"Some members are saying that there is a difference between the draft of the proposed bill and the cabinet decision. We will have to study everything before deciding the proposed bill,"he said.

Kamat said he did not think that the proposed bill could be tabled during the upcoming Assembly session "because the officers are busy".
The week-long Assembly session is scheduled from Jan 11.