Students need more classroom focus on local heritage, nature and success stories
Students in Goa, especially younger ones, will now have a fair chance to get to know Katya Coelho, the 26-year-old locally bred national windsurfing champion. Educational authorities have announced that Coelho will become the second Goan sportsperson (after prominent footballer and former India captain Brahmanand Shankwalkar) to feature in school textbooks. This is a welcome trend. It will be an inspirational story for young minds. We need more such stories. However, the fact that Coelho is only the second sportsperson to feature in our textbooks reminds us that we have too little local content, too few nearby role models and limited inspiration from our own land for our youth.
How much local content have students in Goa studied? Before the launch of the NEP, hopes of celebrating local pride were raised. Those of us from an older generation remember school textbooks coming from Poona under the Maharashtra Board. At the time, the curriculum was dominated by national syllabi, including those of the NCERT, CBSE, ICSE and university frameworks. This left rather limited space to be devoted to Goa’s history, geography, culture, ecology and society. Under the NEP, local content has started to find a place, which is a positive development.
At the primary level, the syllabus includes a moderate and increasing amount of Goa-related studies. For instance, children learn about Goa’s geography, rivers, folk arts and local festivals.
In middle school, there is some Goa-related content in social sciences and languages. In Standards IX and X, it is still limited. Higher secondary students may have little local content unless they choose history or Konkani. At the college level, local content is, surprisingly, mostly optional. History, Konkani, Portuguese, sociology and related humanities offer more intensive study. Efforts have also been made in some English courses at the college level. But why should science, commerce, engineering and professional courses contain so little Goa-focused content?
Much more could be done to focus on Goa’s intricate history, its maritime and trading past, migration and the diaspora, village institutions such as comunidades, local biodiversity, architecture, cuisine, music and oral traditions. Tourism, mining, migration and urbanisation are crucial contemporary issues too. Goa has a rich legacy spanning thousands of years, yet we sometimes remain limited to the 16th and 17th centuries, constantly reminding the world of a gory past as though we have nothing positive to celebrate. How often have we, at public functions, spoken of the 5,000-year-old rock engravings that indicate traces of human settlement on the banks of the River Kushavati? Goa’s positive history has to be highlighted. (Repeated versions of negative history only serve a political agenda.)
This should not be misunderstood as merely a cry of regionalism. Local studies help students better understand the history, geography, languages, ecology, culture and economy of the place where they live. This, in turn, makes their education more relevant and meaningful. It gives them a real chance to connect what they learn with the reality around them.
A strong grounding in local knowledge boosts identity and a sense of belonging. It helps young minds respect the region’s diversity, traditions and heritage. It can also enable talented young people to engage more effectively with contemporary local issues. At higher levels, these include environmental conservation, urban planning, tourism, agriculture and public policy. This would definitely be a step towards preparing more informed and responsible citizens. National and global perspectives will, of course, have their place too. Such a combination could make a reality of the oft-repeated and laudable goal: Think global, act local.
