Goa Tourism launches sms service for tourists

Information on tourist and cultural hotspots – forts, beaches, heritage sites, religious sites, waterfalls and other places of interest will now be available at the tips of your fingers. In an effort to be more tourist-friendly, Goa tourism has embarked on a tech-savvy project which will make it possible for tourists to receive information on popular sightseeing spots on their cell phones. The Government of Goa along with the Infotech Corporation of Goa Ltd (ITGL) recently launched the Mobile Governance (m-governance) programme in the state. As part of the government to citizen (G2C) initiative, Goa Tourism is working with ITGL on this unique project.

In an effort to make the state more accessible to tourists, every place in the state which is of significant tourist interest will undergo a coding process. Explained Swapnil Naik, Director Tourism, Government of Goa “Locations which are of significance to tourists in Goa will be allocated with a specific unique code number.

Texting the code number in the format MGoa_(code of place) to the number 56070, will give tourists information about that particular place. Messages can be delivered in text as well as audio format.” Places of tourist importance - forts, beaches, cultural hot spots, heritage sites, religious sites, waterfalls, adventure tourism sites and other places of interest will be included in the project said Naik.

Sign boards listing the codes for each place will be placed at strategic spots across the state. The tourism department will also increase awareness through the department’s official website and through publicity material including brochures and other travel literature. Speaking about the innovative use of technology to promote tourism, Swapnil Naik said, “Goa Tourism is constantly innovating and improving in keeping up with the expectations of our guests. Getting tech-savvy was the need of the hour. We believe that this tourist-friendly project will be of immense help to the millions of travelers who visit our state year after year.”

He added, “We have been working closely with the ITGL on developing this mobile application which will aid tourists in providing information on the touristic attractions of the state within a matter of seconds, be it in the text or audio formats.”

Courtesy: indiainfoline

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No more single teacher schools

PANAJI:Goa's persistent problem of a high number of single teacher schools is finally set to come to an end this academic year. Education minister Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate is preparing to amalgamate these over 250 government primary schools having a low enrolment with neighbouring schools with a higher enrolment and provide additional teachers to improve the quality of education.

"Parents had earlier protested the amalgamation of these schools with low enrolment with neighbouring schools with more students as they feared this will lead to transportation issues. So we were planning to merge such schools in a few areas in Tiswadi on an experimental basis. Now since we are providing these schools with transportation under a state scheme, this problem will not arise. We will now merge these low enrolment schools," Monserrate said.

He said that as per his announcement during the last assembly session one English teacher will be provided to all such primary schools which will also help improve the quality of education in the schools.

"Single teacher schools function from one or two classrooms and most often a first standard student can hear what the teacher is teaching the fourth standard. This will not happen from now on," Monserrate said.

The number of government primary schools with less than 15 students has been steadily increasing over the last two years.

While government primary schools with low enrolment stood at 172 in 2008, 210 schools were reported to have low enrolments in 2009. This number went up to 253 in June 2010.

The department of education had first decided to temporarily shut down government primary schools with low enrolment, but had to rethink the decision and decided to rework on improving enrolment after parent teacher associations objected stating that students would have to travel longer distances to reach the other primary schools in the locality.

Thereafter, a decision was taken to merge low enrolment primary schools only in tiswadi taluka with neighbouring government primary schools on an experimental basis from June 2010.

This proposal was also hit by opposition from parents who said that the neighbouring schools are too far away for students to walk to everyday.

After amalgamation of the low enrolment schools now, the schools will be shown as temporarily closed until the school's enrolment improves. Closing a school means that the process to reopen the schools if the enrolment improves is much more tedious for doe. As per the annual statistics collected by the ministry of human resource development (hrd) goa has one of the highest percentages of single teacher primary schools and the situation has only been worsening over the years. If the percentage of single teacher schools was 21.37 for 2008-09, it rose to 24.58% in 2009-10. Over 12% of these single teacher schools in goa have between 15 and 24 students studying in them.

The national average of single teacher schools at the elementary level has been pegged at a little over 10%.

Goa's problem of single teacher schools is directly linked to its enrolment since, according to the state's education rules, schools get one teacher for up to 24 students. Most government schools, due to low enrolment, are not provided administrative staff and headmasters, forcing teachers to multitask.

Courtesy : The Times Of India

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Goa says English is parents wish

The drum for English only beats harder day by day in Goa with Goans coming on to the streets to make the stubborn government of Goa understand that their patience is running out and the situation threatens to steamroll into an unnecessary controversy where anguished parents could find themselves in the middle of civil disobedience should the government of Goa fail to accept a legitimate fact that English is a necessary good for the welfare of Goa and Goans.

The massive rally organised by F.O.R.C.E (Forum for Rights of Childrens Education) at Azad Maidan Panjim and at Lohia Maidan Margao saw parents coming in huge members from all the nooks and corners of Goa to make a statement that while Goans love their mother tongue Konkani, there can be no two ways to decide about what should be the medium of instruction for Goans which parents have unanimously chorused for English.

However the government of Goa seems to be the wannabe spoilsport and is bent on making the genuine demand of the parents into a needless controversy. Some old minds and outdated legs have come together to oppose the sincere voice of parents by forming a moronic manch which claims that they are the custodians of culture in Goa.

While FORCE has not sought to seek the removal of Konkani and Marathi as the medium of instruction in Goan schools but has only appealed to include English as one of the mediums which parents may choose depending upon their wishes, it was a natural obligation of the government to accede to such a simple request. However the government of Goa appears to be a rogue setup intent on destroying poor Goans by denying them English education while allowing the rich and their own kin to avail of English education facilities which presently are provided by unaided English schools at a very high cost.

In their latest endeavour FORCE has given the government of Goa time till May 7 2011 to decide or they plan to agitate to take the matter to its rightful conclusion. This after the Chief Minister of Goa Mr Digambar kamat who meets migrant labour and moti dongor chieftains at the drop of a hat, refused to meet anguished Goan parents who came with a plea for the future of Goan children.

So much for being Goan!

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Goa News Today

Welcome to Goa News Today. Goa is one the move. The news is churning by the hour. This blog plans to provide you with the news on Goa as it happens on a day to day basis. all you have to do is bookmark this page and return here every day to see your favourite blog for the newspack that is so mucha a part of Goa. Happy news reading on Goa.

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