[Fsf-friends] Fw: reply to protest on it@school

[Harilal]

----- Original Message -----
From: <itschool@asianetindia.com>
To: Harilal <harilal@cusat.ac.in>
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 3:47 PM
Subject: Re:


>
>
> Dear Harilal,
> It is not a virtual Surrender to MNCS. Think about the logistics
> involved. We have to train some 500 Master Trainers for training other
> teachers.  All the 2000 Schools should have sufficient copies of Software.
> Then there is the need of a unified syllabus through the State, then only
> exams could be conducted in the SSLC. Think about the training alone.
> We are employing now 165 Master Trainers after giving them 15 days
> training in association with Intel. These people are to give training to
the
> 60000 teachers. What do an average person learns on IT after15 days
> training?  But they are managing it because they are familiar with
> Microsoft products, which are common through out this state. What about
> the course materials for 60000 teachers? What about the Software at the
> training centres? Does the free Software foundation man a call centre
> where people can get help in our language whenever they encounter a
> problem with Hardware or Software while using the free Software? There is
> so many other logistical issues associated.
> You must understand that IT @ School was started way back
> in 2000. It is making some progress only during this year. Please note
> that I took over on 17th August 2001 and was running pillar to post to
> arrange all these logistics till April 2002.  Apart from the DEOs and
others
> you may be astonished to hear the number of people with Project team,
> which is implementing this mammoth the project.
>
> Executive Director-1
> Officers-5
> Data entry operators-3
> Peon-1 and
> 165 MTs who are busy with training . We are training around 1300 high
> school teachers is around 75 training centres every two weeks.
>
>  We adopt a strategy to introduce Microsoft for the 1st year then move to
> open office during 2nd year (for IT-2 text book) and introduces Linux and
> open office in 50:50 arrangement with windows and Ms office from IT-3
> textbook onwards. When sufficient groundwork is done the school level
> and teachers level we may increase the weightage of open Software in our
> curriculum. This year Prof. Krishnan (University College,
> Thiruvananthapuram). President of Trivandrum chapter Free Software
> foundation is a member of the expert Committee overseeing the
> preparation of IT-2 textbook. Need I say anything more.
>
> regards
>
>
> Biju Prabhakar
>
> Executive Director
>
> IT @ School Project
>
>