This article penetrates in to the various aspects of it@school project
This is an open discussion on implementing the GNU/Linux project in the govt. schools and govt. aided schools of Kerala state. I am personally not biased towards windows nor Linux. As a technical person I see computer as just a tool that increase my productivity . it is not a matter whether you teach Linux of windows to the students .
From the year 2005 the govt. of kerala decided to move to the free-software for the students who were thought the govt. syllabus . It is always nice to introduce something that is innovative and bold to for the first time, but when the reason for changing from windows to Linux is just a political decision that just based on a myth that any company that make a profit out of the business is an evil and the free-software foundation is the new avatar of socialist movement , it cant be appreciated .
According to the information furnished in the it@school project website itself .. it spent millions of Rs . on the hardware and Microsoft software from 2002 to 2005.
As far as the scenario in kerala is concerned most on the home users are running Ms-windows as the prime operating system. When it@school was initially started they used windows as the medium of study for the school students , and the normal study was done on windows -98 machines . Most of the schools whether it is govt. schools or govt. aided private management schools they employed low powered machines that run on 64 MB of RAM. As a tech support person , I was managing networks and computers at several schools and was witnessing happily the advancement students are making in their computing knowledge.
As I said previously , and wish to repeat here , am not against any operating systems. As a trainer I am training network management students in RedHat -Linux and is comfortable with the operating system. But I wish to see the Linux as an operting system and not as a movement. I personally wish to see Linux as a power full network operating system where it is most suited, just as some one called it , a downsized Patton-tank. In 2005 , kerala Govt . and it@school project team decided to switch over to gnu/linux as the prime desktop operating system in schools . According to their sources itself , ( please read the pdf . file from it@school Project ) till date they trained 36,000 teachers for MS-windows and 16,000 for Linux. So what about the rest of the 20,000 teachers??? And what does it means to all those students who has to undergo Linux classes under the teachers who only have windows knowledge ???
One of the schools I personally used to manage has 15 pc’s running windows . When Linux was implemented on that machines , it turned out that only 3 machines were capable of running the GNU/ Linux as most of the pc’s contain only 64 MB of RAM . If linux is claiming to run on low configuration machines why is that the morphix insists on 256 MB RAM ? and a machine with over 1 GHz clock speed.?? The end result is that on a computer lab that comfortably occupied 30 students with a machine to student ratio of 1:2 , now all these poor guys are crowding in front of 3 machines that runs Linux.
Another reason for lack of success in Linux implementation is the teachers attitude towards the changes and new technologies. Does the it- project from Govt set any criteria on who will be going to teach students about this latest trends. On a famous aided school I was familiar with , the physics teacher who was forcibly given the additional charge of computer lab was chosen for that duty simply because he has a computer at home and know some bits and bytes of it. How many teaching staff really know the real spirit of gnu/Linux movement and how many of them are imparting the same to the students !!!!!!! And the training given to the staff was poor enough so that the teaching staff actually bi-heart all the stuff and presents it to the students.
I expect any it@school project team members to personally visit any school and collect feedback from the students.
When windows was in the curriculum students and faculties it was easier for them to follow as the same environment was in their home machine. Consider the case of a normal students in a school who does not have a computer @ home. When he was at 8th standard he will begin his his computing training on gnu/linux. If it is his only source of computer knowledge , when he reach 10th grade and come out of school I hope that he knows some basic skills in gnu/linux. ( surly basic ) Can anyone tell me where he is going to implement it practically ? the result is that he remains a computer iliterate as far as Microsoft products is concerned. Why we are conducting such cruel experiments on poor children who cannot afford an extra computer class from a private institution , in contrast the elite students who study in C.B.S.E syllabus study Microsoft products from 4th grade and excel in all their academic as well as computing skills .
I suspect just like the DPEP project is it some hidden agenda to port students from govt. schools to C.B.S.E institutions.. This is my personal views on the project and please write your comments and feedbacks.
