Goa, July 15 -- Chief Minister Pramod Sawant recently tried to allay concerns expressed by several educationists about the closure of government primary schools in Goa, claiming that the State did not deliberately shut down any of them but was forced to do so because of declining student numbers.

According to Sawant, the closures are not policy-driven but because parents increasingly opt for urban and aided schools. "Many are alleging that we have shut down Marathi government primary schools. We have renovated and rebuilt many government primary schools. We did not shut any school. It is due to parents. In some government primary schools, when student numbers were not there, they had to be shut. The government does not want to close any ...