Panaji: National wind surfing champion Katya Coelho, 26, has become the second Goan sportsperson after Brahmanand Shankhwalkar to have a chapter dedicated to them in the new Class VIII Konkani textbook. The textbook has been created and is being implemented from this academic year under the National Education Policy (NEP).Director of the state council for educational research and training (SCERT), Meghana Shetgaonkar, said that the council wanted to offer Goan children the inspiration of local heroes, which led to the inclusion of the lesson on Katya.At just 11, while most children were learning to ride bicycles, Katya was balancing on a windsurfing board, thanks to her champion father, Donald, who introduced her to the sport. Since then, she has won countless national medals in windsurfing, besides becoming the only Indian female sailor at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing in 2014, states the Class VIII textbook.The lesson tells students how Katya has two Asian medals to her name and is the first Indian to win a silver medal in iQFoil, a new Olympic category.“Around 150 teachers and academicians came together under various committees and worked over two years to create the new textbooks as per requirements of the NEP. We have created 41 textbooks from Class I to VIII, many of them, like the Konkani books, from scratch. It was our endeavour that students should become familiar with as much local history, culture, and our local heroes as possible. The inclusion of the lesson on Katya is part of the same effort,” said Shetgaonkar.Anil Samant, convenor of content development (Konkani) for SCERT, said that the team members made sure to interview Katya to make the chapter on her as accurate and detailed as possible. “We will ensure that as the students reach Class VIII, they learn as much about Goa as possible,” said Samant.The Class VIII Konkani textbook, Maand, also includes a chapter on Padma Shri awardee and Goan folk researcher Vinayak Khedekar. Similarly, the new Marathi textbook for Class VI, Bageshri, covers a chapter on a martyr of the Goa freedom struggle, Bala Raya Mhapari, while the Class VIII Marathi textbook includes a lesson of Padma Shri awardee vocalist from Goa, Jitendra Abhisheki.BOXMancurad, cucumber fest make it to primary school bookstimes news networkPanaji: In an attempt to introduce children to more regionally-relevant content, as required under the National Education Policy (NEP), the new Class III Konkani textbook implemented from this academic year introduces students to the most popular local mango variety, Mancurad.The chapter in the textbook, ‘Ovlam’, teaches students about various other local mango varieties as well.In the new Class IV Konkani textbook, students will be introduced to the touxeachem fest (cucumber feast) at Talaulim village of Tiswadi taluka, where cucumbers are offered by devotees at the over 300-year-old St Anne’s Church.The feast of St Joaquim and St Anne, the grand parents of Jesus Christ, falls on July 26, but is celebrated on the last Sunday of the month in Talaulim. The feast has a peculiar tradition to it, and being the season for cucumbers (’touxim‘ in Konkani), people offer this vegetable at the feet of St Anne.Newlywed couples go to Talaulim, offer a cucumber, and petition St Anne seeking an offspring.
