panaji former chief minister wilfred de souza on saturday accused the directorate of education of harassing schools over the issue of medium of instruction at the primary school level addressing mediapersons de souza handed copies of a letter written on october 5 by the archdiocesan board of education abe to the directorate of education doe in that letter the abe gave a list of schools under its control that had switched to english medium in the primary level and also gave the reasons for the switchover in late december the doe wrote letters to schools asking for details about the number of schools that have switched to english medium at the primary stage to take needful action in the matter when the abe has already written to the doe in october giving all these details why is the department writing in december asking for the same details this amounts to harassment de souza said although the abe has refrained from using the word harassment it has however made clear that it is uncomfortable over some additional district educational inspectors adeis in their overenthusiasm visiting primary schools without the customary advance notice and asking primary teachers questions laced with fine legal niceties the abe had requested that such questions may be addressed directly to the management to save a lot of unnecessary tension among students staff and parents and the possibility of hasty answers that are not correct the abe has also given four reasons why it has switched to the english medium one is the decision of the state cabinet taken on may 25 approving grants to english medium primary schools the second is circular number 368 of the directorate of education dated june 10 2011 this circular clearly states that grants to english medium primary schools would be effective from the academic year 20112012 the abe pointed out the third is that heads and managements have taken in writing the decision of each parent with regard to the medium of instruction for their childward at the request of the directorate of education twice and these undertakings are on the records of the directorate of education the abe stated the fourth reason is the decision of the high court of bombay at goa on may 24 2011 and published on june 20 2011 in writ petition no 316 of 2011 endorsing the fact that grants are released to the schools with english as medium of instruction these grants are released to the schools without withdrawing the grant to the schools which do not have english as medium of instruction ie schools which have konkani or marathi as medium of instruction the letter continues as managements of primary schools we could not continue to keep the education of 26342 children hanging in the balance in our interactions with representatives of the government of goa and especially with the members of your directorate we have never felt that you would disregard their aspirations or the anxiety of nearly 50000 parents we continue