The final choice is now in the hands of Goa's parents on selection of medium of instructions for their wards in the primary schools. Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal has conveyed the decision to chief minister Digambar Kamat. If parents want English, the government can do little about it, he ruled.

He refused to pass any order that curtails freedom of choice of parents or goes against the Right to Education (RTE) Act passed by parliament in 2009, as he said the government cannot force the
parents' rights.

Sibal was quite clear that the centre has no role to pass an order on what should be the medium of instructions while it is not open for the state government to tweak the RTE Act and flout its provisions.

His decision may have implication in many other states where the English medium private schools will now insist on the government funding that was denied to them on the ground of not teaching in the language of the state concerned.

Sibal has also rejected the claim of the Konkani Bhasha Mandal (KBM) leaders Fr Jaima Couto and Uday Bhebre that the RTE Act mandates mother tongue or regional language as medium of instructions in primary schools.

The provision is recommendatory and not mandatory as Section 29(2)(f) does not bind the government. It simply says that "medium of instruction shall, as far as possible, be in child's mother tongue," the HRD minister underlined, laying stress on "as far as possible."

He pointed out that the Act nowhere says that the medium of instructions should be compulsorily in the child's mother tongue nor does it link the government funding of schools with the medium of
instructions.

It means that the state government has no escape but to fund even the English medium private schools under the RTE Act that provides for the Centre and States to share the cost of education to children up to the age of 14.

Though the state government came to the centre to settle the dispute over the language of instructions in the funded primary schools, the Sibal's decision may open up a Pandora box for it as parents may now ask for English medium even in the government schools.

As a policy, the state government has been providing grants to only those private schools that opt for Marathi or Konkani as the medium of instruction in the primary classes while all government schools teach only in Marathi or Konkani.

It was at the instance of Jagmeet Singh Brar, incharge of Goa desk in the All India Congress Committee, that the state government had sought opinion of Sibal to settle the issue raging in Goa for quite some time.

Sibal says he has made the position clear as regards the RTE Act and finds no need to give any guidelines. It is now for the chief minister, who met him here last week, to explain the position back
home that the Act does not make mother tongue or for that matter any language as the compulsory medium of instruction, he added.

The Goan leaders for and against English as the medium of instructions had descended in Delhi last Wednesday for a meeting with Sibal to settle the dispute. He was, however, away in Geneva for a telecom conference and as such the leaders held a series of sessions in the new Goa Sadan, chaired by PCC President Subhash Shirodkar, for two days on Wednesday and Thursday.

Those who attended included education minister Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate, PWD minister Churchill Alemao and former union law minister Ramakant Khalap. Most of the leaders returned to Goa before the Chief Minister and Shirodkar could get an audience with Sibal to put forward discussions held in Delhi meetings and seek his guidance.