The Hindu : Kerala News : State tops in use of Free Software

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

State tops in use of Free Software

C. Gouridasan Nair

Training programme to cover 4,000 IT coordinators in schools

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is showing the way to the rest of the country on how Free Software can be used to the advantage of the both educators and learners.

As a first step towards moving to Free Software, the IT@School project has begun the first phase of teacher training involving around 200 Master Trainers with the help of the Model Engineering College, Ernakulam.

The first phase of training, which commenced on May 16, would conclude on June 4. The second phase consisting of district level training would begin in the second week of June.

The training programme would cover around 4,000 IT coordinators in schools spread over the State.

The IT education in Standard VIII would be based entirely on GNU-Linux platform from this year.

However, migration to the GNU-Linux platform in respect of Standard IX and X would take place only during the coming two years.

Till the full switch-over takes places, both Microsoft and GNU-Linux platforms would continue to be used in Standard IX and X.

Alternative model

Kerala would be the first State to actively promote Free Software in school education, once again demonstrating an alternative model of development. With the traditional model of proprietary software, introducing IT Education in 2600 High Schools in the State would have cost us around Rs. 100 crores just for licensing.

This is just the cost for the operating system and basic applications, and does not include the cost of educational software that are needed for IT-enabled education.

The State would now be able to save this amount and invest it in other sectors such as manpower development in Free Software, development of basic infrastructure, etc.

It would also save the State the annual licensing fees being introduced by some proprietary software companies.

Unauthorised software

This move towards Free Software will also remove the Damocles' sword of the Anti-Piracy Act hanging above the teachers of our schools.

The computers in almost all the schools run on unauthorised software, and the teachers and users often do not realise that what they are doing is illegal. Teachers could be under the threat of serious legal action for using such software.

Recently, organisations such as NASSCOM had announced large rewards for providing information on the use of unlicensed software.

This could be followed by inspections, leading to legal action. Kerala is not alone, nor is it the first, in this migration towards Free Software.

From 2002, around 80,000 computers running in the schools in Spain are using free software.

They have even established a local IT company to provide technical support to schools. Many other schools in Brazil, Venezuela, the U.K., the U.S.A. and several other parts of the world depend on Free Software.

In India, Goan schools have shown how old computers can be recycled using Free Software.

The IT@School programme would be one of the topics to be discussed at the four-nation conference on `Free Software, Free Society' to be held at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, from May 28 to 30.

Official delegations from Brazil, Venezuela and Italy are expected to participate in the conference.

They would share their experiences in using free software in education.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala