Free Software Compulsory in India!

Free software in India is from now on mandatory for IT practicals of SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) examination planned for March 2008.

Orders making free software compulsory have been issued by the Director of Public Instruction (DPI), considering Linux Operating System should be used
for IT education in 8th, 9th, and 10th standards. The DPI will also start various programs to popularize the free software. Until last year, schools had to choose between free software and the Windows operating system.

For the 10th standard, fully Linux-based text books have been prepared, while for the 8th and 9th standard more books have been provided. These books were prepared by SCERT (State Council Educational Research and Training) and Free Software Foundation of India under the guidance of IT@school project.

Introductory lectures will be delivered in school assemblies across the country on Monday, and after them a pledge will follow. Outlines for the lectures and pledge circulate in schools. The DPI has started organizing competitions for the students mainly in the digital art area.

A digital painting competition for students of 8th standard will be conducted using the applications TUX paint, XPaint and GIMP, with the subject "My school and surrounding" , and a presentation contest will be held for the students of 9th and 10th standard with the topic "IT and its benefits to the common man", using Open Office Impress. Both competitions will have a duration of one hour and a half.


The prize winning paintings will be compiled at the State level and then uploaded on the website The official web site of the Department of General Education , Government of Kerala.

The situation is at least ironic: by making compulsory the use of software that should be free, the government is annulling the students’ freedom of choice; still, at the same time, the measure (namely using free, open source software) also means a lot of money will be saved by these schools.

Sources : - SCERT KERALA | official website of general education
LinuxWorld | Free software wins support among communists in India

Behold the horde of Open Source approaches

Yesss !!!, and this will be easier for schools to push, hardware requirements are'nt that high and most of the good Distros are free, this is a good move.

These things could be the turning point for Linux's success. Windows is available on every PC and its pirated. People are so used to it that they want Windows at offices and buy original for that!! Hence, Windows sells bigtime!!

When from the younger days you get to use linux, you'll realize u never wanted Windows... Great move to help Linux acceptance!! And we are not just taking about Linux here, many other free softwares like openOffice. Great motivation for open source contributors!!

@chezy: Wouldn't agree on the hardware requirement mate. Any modern OS with similar features requires nearly the same type of hardware. May be some minor difference in hardware required, but nearly the same.

wow, that's a nice initiative. I agree with @Sunbiz that good things start at a younger age, just like @Dark Star

Jesus ......... Now even school going kids will be knowing linux

I better start my hands on it!

Totally agreed !!
You mean Linux and Mac or counting Vista in that

What so shocking in that ?

^^ I'm sure that may not be so surprising for the geeks....but for the average guy, linux still means CLI ...which means they won't even try it to know how simple it actually is.

Well in that case nothing could be done.. Like if you consider the shade to ghost then what can be done.Only sorting or testing it out will give you the final result and thought abt it . Linux has evolved much and not it provides the best all round experience as far as full functional OS is concerned

wow! this is a great move!