Goa ready for concession in school timings increased under RTE

Panaji, PTI: Bowing to pressure from parents, the Goa government has agreed to give concession in increased school timings till difficulties expressed by parents are addressed.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar held a meeting with concerned parents at Porvorim near here after few expressed unhappiness over the extra 30 minutes in school timings making it five-and-half hours as a part of Right to Education (RTE) implementation.

The Chief Minister said that parent-teacher associations (PTAs) can demand for concession in the half an hour extra timing, which has been implemented since this academic year.

The parents during discussion with the Chief Minister said that extra timings are taxing for school children.

Parrikar, responding to the questions, also assured that the timings for primary schools would be reverted to five hours, as against five-and-half hours.

The formal notification seeking PTAs request to cut down the timings would be issued on Monday, he said.

He claimed that the decision on school timings would be taken on day to day basis.

The parents also expressed their apprehensions over quality of food served in the midday meal scheme.

To which, the Chief Minister said that self help groups who have been awarded the contract to prepare meals would not be paid money, if PTA certifies that the food served was sub-standard.