To
Shri Sanjay Kumar, Education Secretary,
Government of Maharashtra
Mumbai
Sub – MoU to set up privately operated IT academies for Government school teachers
We have read in the newspapers that the Department of Education, Government of Maharashtra, has entered into a MoU with Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited, wherein Microsoft will set up three IT academies and train government school teachers in Maharashtra, at no cost to the State.
However, under the terms of the MOUs that Microsoft has entered into with a few other state Governments, the Government has no role in curriculum design. These MOUs typically do not allow or even envisage the teaching of alternative technologies that are in use in India, many of which are mentioned below. The result is that only Microsoft applications will be taught in these academies.
There are critical pedagogical and economic problems with such a restriction, if it is also part of the MoU signed recently with the Government of Maharashtra, according to a press release issued by Microsoft. A few of the principal issues are listed below, for your convenience and ready reference:
1. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) such as GNU/Linux, Open Office, Firefox have equivalent features as the Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer applications being taught in these academies. Millions of people are using these FOSS applications all over the world and in India as well. The advantage of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is that being 'free software', the user is licensed to make copies and distribute the same, which is an important freedom for the teachers who undergo the training under this MOU, to avoid them (and their students) being compelled to spend considerable amounts of money procuring proprietary software for their own personal / home computers. It is also prudent to control the costs of subsequently upgrading the software in the computers installed in the schools, as software by its nature is constantly subject to upgradation and improvement.
2. FOSS applications can also be modified - both maintained and extended by anybody, instead of being forced to go to only one vendor. In India, this is especially useful for local language extensions etc, which can be done by a much larger community of free software professionals, instead of waiting for releases from the vendor only. Thus learning ICTs acquires a new powerful dimension - of the learners being co-constructors using software as tools, instead of being 'passive consumers' of proprietary technologies. The 'National Curriculum Framework 2005', which is an important part of Government Education policy has stress on this principle of 'constructivism' being critical to learning. CDAC has taken advantage of this feature of FOSS, to release local language extensions of Open Office in major Indian Languages.
3. In the interests of the pedagogical principle of diversity of learning, it is not desirable to force a single vendor's ICT applications on teachers in Government schools. It is our submission that curriculum design is the responsibility of the Government and cannot be solely determined by a private company. Under this program thus government funds are being used (teachers TA, DA etc is paid by the Government), and there will be a significant component of computers, peripherals and other related expenses, including on electricity, that will be directed solely towards this initiative, when it is deployed in 85,000 schools as mentioned in the press release.
4. Most importantly, Governments, by their very reach and mandate, have a key role in setting public standards. By the very act of adopting free and open technologies, the Government supports setting up of open standards, which supports the public good. By this, governments will be encouraging the use of FOSS. Use of FOSS at such a huge scale will help create a FOSS eco-system, which has enormous benefits to society at large, apart from all its direct benefits for the adopting government agencies. This is the reason why the MCIT has released draft document mandating adoption of Open Standards in government. Keeping the above advantages in mind, the National Knowledge Commission and the Planning Commission have also recommended that governments should encourage and adopt FOSS widely.
The latest draft of the "National Policy on ICTs in school education" from MHRD also states in section 5.3.2 that " .. free and open source software applications will be preferred". (see the policy on http://education.nic.in/secedu/ict.pdf)
5. The Education department of Kerala has successfully used FOSS in their IT@Schools program which has saved the state over fifty crores over the past few years, has enabled all its teachers in high schools to become ICT literate, and also to train their students on FOSS platforms.
The program includes IT enabled learning, wherein several FOSS educational software packages like Dr. Geo (for Geometry), K-TECH (Physics), Rasamol (Chemistry) etc. are used by teachers to make classroom sessions more interesting and participatory for the students. The Kerala program is also based on a customised educational software FOSS distribution – this customisation by the institutions in Kerala is possible only due to the selection of FOSS as a platform.
The experience of Kerala needs to be considered, since it is a vastly superior program to those which are based on proprietary technologies. A paper on the IT@Schools program is enclosed with this letter (also available on http://www.itforchange.net/media/clps.pdf).
Many other states too have realized the benefits of adopting FOSS in their schools – Gujarat, Orissa and Assam being among them.
Hence it is our submission that government schools need to actively support the use and creation of free software syllabi on ICT in school education, rather than only promoting proprietary software. We feel that it is problematic for the government to enter into a MOU where the curriculum only covers proprietary technologies, especially when FOSS alternatives exist. We hope our submission will be considered by the Government to review the MoU with Microsoft so that FOSS applications are also taught to government school teachers.
We look forward to your response and an appointment to discuss the matter as soon as possible.