[Fsf-friends] Computer Education @ School

Ramanraj K ramanraj@md4.vsnl.net.in
Thu Sep 16 10:02:58 IST 2004


Mahesh T. Pai wrote:
 > [true state of affairs]

Mahesh, after  reading your response, I  was reminded of  the words of
two great saints:

     "I  have not conceived  my mission  to be  that of  a knight-errant
     wandering everywhere  to deliver people  from difficult situations.
     My humble  occupation has  been to show  people how they  can solve
     their own difficulties."  - Mahatma Gandhi

     Minds without Fear:

     Where the mind is without fear and
           the head is held high;
     Where knowledge is free;
     Where the world has not been broken up into
           fragments by narrow domestic walls;
     Where words come out from the depth of truth;
     Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
     Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
           into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
     Where the mind is lead forward by thee into
           ever-widening thought and action--
     Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
           let my country awake.

     --Rabindranath Tagore

Mahatma Gandhi also  said, "If, after the coming  of Swaraj the people
of India will  keep on looking to the  government for regulating every
detail of their lives, then that Swaraj will be meaningless."

The Free Software Movement is one of the greatest Voluntary actions in
recent history, that has brought in visible changes, and we can really
hope that this  sharing will lead us into the  space of freedom Tagore
could only dreamed of.

There are  many hurdles,  but they could  be overcome. One  problem is
that  we  have too  many  competing  education  streams: State  Board,
Matriculation, CBSE, ICSE, along  with others, and these divisions can
easily dissipate any attempts to streamline the system of education.

Here, the Director of Matriculation Schools, under the Govt. of TN has
proposed the inclusion  of Computer Science as a  subject for students
from  III  Standard and  X  Standard,  and  the proposed  syllabus  is
available at:

http://www.tn.gov.in/matric/default.asp

Traditionally,   the   Matriculation   Schools   in   TN   have   good
ifrastructure, teaching staff and curriculum.  A lot of effort appears
to have  gone into preparing the matriculation  school curriculum, and
it  is  truly commendable  that  it  has  been made  available  online
requesting for feedback to raise the standards of education.

Reading the  material on  CS reminded  me of my  days back  in school.
Those of us from CBSE schools can recall the SUPW Classes: Boys had EG
- Electrical Gadgets and  girls could opt for Sewing  - where learning
was by  doing things.  My first  EG class started  with "Properties of
Magnets", and our teacher brought a couple of bar magnets to class and
taught us  that magnets have two  poles - North and  South, like poles
repel, unlike poles attract, did  a demo with the magnets, then passed
the  magnets around  the class  letting  us try  it.  Later,  electric
bulbs, batteries, transformers,  resistors and capacitors entered into
the class: but all these were  referred to only by their generic names
and we  were taught  about their general  properties. Brand  or vendor
names were used only to compare market prices, quality and suitability
for use.  [BTW, SUPW is short for Socially Useful Productive Work]

Magnets  have another  property: It  is easy  to "copy"  and  "make" a
magnet by stroking. Sharing free software is as easy and lossless like
sharing  or making magnets.   Students could  be easily  encouraged to
share code and work together on projects.

I  wish that the  whole school  curriculum is  based and  built around
SUPW.  Free Software is  the way to go if we desire  to have a society
where children are taught  to be independent, resourceful, productive,
co-operative, rational, intelligent and socially responsible.

Computer  Science is  fairly mature,  qualifies as  a  good vocational
subject, and has evolved  standards and specifications that are vendor
neutral.   Lessons  taught  under  Computer Science  should  be  given
general   titles    like   word-processing,   spreadsheets,   database
management, operating systems,  file management, programming etc.  The
matriculation  syllabus  needs  corrections,  and should  use  subject
headings  like "Database  Systems" instead  of "Microsoft  Access", or
"Word Processing" instead of "Microsoft Word".

Broadly, Computing could be taught  at two levels: Upto 10th standard,
it  may be  appropriate  to teach  "Computer  Applications" -  whereby
students become  proficent _users_ of  computer applications: anything
from  graphical  processing  tools   like  gimp  to  word  processing,
spreadsheets etc, with an  elementary grounding in programming through
basic, bash [free software tool: bwbasic] and some scripting languages
like javascript and php.

"Computer Science" may be suitable for higher secondary classes, where
the  focus could  be on  learning C,  system administration  and other
aspects  of the  science  with  depths suitable  for  their level.  Of
course, free  software philosophy highlighting the  virtues of sharing
and respect for ethical values could permeate every level.

Some of  this was shared  at the ILUGC  list, and, we could  also send
feedback as  requested by the Director of  Matriculation Schools, even
though we have crossed the due date, as the proposed syllabus is to be
introduced  only in  stages from  2005, so  that the  Computer Science
subject could be truly and honestly taught as a SCIENCE.

The  Free Software  Movement has  contributed several  thousand useful
applications.  With little effort  from more volunteers, we could make
the free software wealth reach everyone.

Thanks  to the  divisions in  school systems,  we have  to  repeat the
exercise, wherever these bugs exist, until they are fixed :)





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