Please share widely in your media networks...
regards,
Guru
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Please find enclosed a press release concerning a letter sent to the
Government of Rajasthan for a tender floated by the Government for the
purchase of laptops pre-loaded with proprietary software. The letter
requests the government to re-consider distribution of laptops to
students without appropriate teacher preparation, and to consider Free
and Open Source Software as a possible alternative to proprietary software.
The tender document, press release (also produced below) and the letter
can be accessed from the following link:
http://itforchange.net/Letter_Rajasthan_government_Laptop_purchase_feb2013
Request you to kindly do the needful.
*For Immediate release*
*February 22, 2013*
Eminent educationists across the country have strongly criticised the
recent move of the Government of Rajasthan to provide 112,000 laptops to
students, pre-loaded with proprietary software applications such as
Microsoft Office 2010 Professional and Adobe Acrobat Professional and
have written to the Education Minister advising against this move. Dr
Vinod Raina, member of the Central Advisory Board of Education, an
advisory body to MHRD, said /“The decision of the Rajasthan Government
violates the National Policy on ICT in School Education passed by the
Central Advisory Board for Education./” The National ICT Policy clearly
recommends the use of a wide variety free and open source software
applications for its rich learning potential.
These are many high quality FOSS alternatives to the Adobe and Microsoft
proprietary applications specified in the bid document, and Gurumurthy
Kasinathan, Director of IT for Change said “/the government can save
anywhere between 50 to 100 crore rupees on this laptop procurement by
going for FOSS”/. The letter points out that large states such as
Kerala, Karnataka and Gujarat are using these FOSS applications in their
ICT programmes in schools and their benefits have been acknowledged by a
CABE sub-committee on ICTs and education. This committee has also
pointed to the danger of the “appropriateness of proprietary software in
terms of pedagogy, equity and larger public interest... more so because
information about these technologies is mostly spread by their vendors,
whose major concern, understandably, is to sell them more and more”.
The letter states that apart from economic considerations, the use of
software that teachers cannot share or modify based on local needs will
be educationally inadvisable. Dr Rohit Dhankar, Digantar member of the
National Curricular Framework, 2005 focus group, said,/'//Imagine a
carpenter who cannot sharpen or modify his tools in any way. This person
will be totally governed in his work-style and work-habits by the tool
manufacturers; and would almost be a slave to their ways of thinking
about how carpentry can be done. Anyone using computers on a
predetermined set of unchangeable operating systems is likely to be a
bigger slave in ways of thinking and using computers as the software
developers want him to do. Most of us are slaves of these soft-ware
companies, and therefore, find it very hard to imagine alternative
ways.//*'*//The letter also suggests that merely distributing laptops to
students is unlikely to have significant benefits in the absence of
systemic preparation including teacher training and local infrastructure
maintenance./
//
//
//
//The bid document of the Rajasthan Government as well as the letter to
the Minister are available on
<http://www.itforchange.net/Letter_Rajasthan_government_Laptop_purchase_feb2013>http://itforchange.net/Letter_Rajasthan_government_Laptop_purchase_feb2013
Thanks and Regards,
Neeru
09916893596
--
Neeru Malhotra
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Research Assistant
IT for Change
In special consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC
www.ITforChange.net <http://www.itforchange.net/>
Have you heard about the CITIGEN programme? Visit
www.gender-IS-citizenship.net <http://www.gender-IS-citizenship.net>
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