PANAJI: The Lusophone Society of Goa (LSG) handed over a letter to the President of Portugal during his visit to Goa at a meeting in Panaji on Sunday, asking him for institutional support in the implementation of a ‘Portuguese International School’ (PIS) in Goa.
The Society is initiating this private school project with the intent to promote both the Portuguese and the Indian culture and to facilitate the learning of the Portuguese language.
At present, thanks to the prerogatives Goans have to acquire the Portuguese nationality and it is estimated that more than 30,000 people have made use of this facility in the last few decades. The overwhelming majority of them work in the Middle East, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia, but their families or part of them are in Goa and do not speak Portuguese.
The “Portuguese International School” (PIS) should have a Lusophone character including collaboration with other countries where Portuguese is spoken like Brazil and Mozambique. It would integrate students of Portuguese and Indian nationality as well as of other nationalities and confer the degree of the Portuguese 12th year, as well as the Indian. This would open to its students access to universities in both countries and may be even internationally.
“The creation of the “Portuguese International School” (PIS) in Goa should be a private initiative but in close institutional cooperation with educational authorities in Portugal and with the support also of the European Union,” said Aurobindo Xavier, president of the LSG.