The cyberworld & Goan culture
Sandesh Prabhudesai
19 June 2002
India needs to create a cyberage student,
but not a mere machine, detaching them from their cultural
roots.
Goa's chief minister Manohar Parrikar,
while presenting the annual budget, precisely aims at
this goal.
His plan to 'donate' a personal computer
to each and every student of standard XIth has in fact
surprised everybody. But it is also possible as the number
of such students every year is not beyond 12,000, in total
80 higher secondary schools in a tiny state of Goa.
Launching a Cyberage Student scheme,
Parrikar has made a provision of Rs 100 million, so that
each and every student can literally take a PC home, at
a nominal fee, once he enters XIth standard.
The scheme is bound to have a revolutionary
impact on Goan society as the higher secondary schools
are spread to even interior parts of the state and not
the cities and towns alone.
Thanks to the initiative taken by the
erstwhile Congress governments, the present BJP government
also took a step forward and completed the task of providing
computers to almost all the 365 highschools and 80 higher
secondary schools, leave alone the colleges.
"I also plan to integrate latest computer
aided teaching techniques in the curriculum of schools
and colleges to achieve the dual purpose of enhancing
familiarity with computers and simultaneously imparting
a qualitative thrust to educational inputs", states Parrikar.
By next month, he has also decided to
provide district computer laboratories with state of the
art facilities, while also making budgetary provision
for special one-time grant of Rs five million for computerisation
of colleges.
Creating e-culture appears to be the
thrust of every government that comes to power in the
state for the last five years, though very little has
actually been achieved till date. Even Parrikar talks
of e-governance, e-administration and even e-security
for e-citizens.
But what needs to be appreciated is also
introducing the mid-school meal scheme at primary level
for correct nutrition to nurture a healthy mind of a student
in financial distress. Goa has also introduced once again
interest-free loans to economically backward students.
While jumping into the cyberworld, the
state however has not forgotten its cultural roots, be
its linguistic skills, music or other forms of performing
art that Goa is known for centuries together.
Besides enhancing grants for the development
of Konkani and Marathi languages to Rs four million each,
Parrikar has also made a special provision of Rs one million
for Sanskrit. The scheme of teaching music and performing
art has been now extended to almost 100 schools.
While the cultural state is in the process
of constructing well-equipped auditoriums in major towns,
Parrikar has also announced his plan to have small versions
of such Kala Mandirs in every taluka.
And as a tribute to Gantapaswini Mogubai
Kurdikar, the great Goan classical singer and mother of,
the state will now also have a Sangeet Academy, to make
Padmvibhushan Kishori Amonkar's dream come true.
"I hope my efforts would bring hidden
talents to the fore and produce more Lata Mangeshkars
and Kishori Amonkars who would make Goa proud in years
to come", states Parrikar.
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