Kerala minister urged to stop piracy in schools
By Yasmin Ahmed

Kerala has been long touted as a role model not just to the country but the world as well in several areas like health and literacy; and the free software initiative is a prominent paragraph in the IT policy of its state government. It supports the use, development and even promises a mandate for the use of free software and has done the migrations already in a number of government offices, institutions and schools.

The major electronics organization of the government KELTRON even does its jumbo projects in free software, and the IT@School project is an endeavor to replace paid software with free ones like Linux and promote their usage. So it is evident that the government policy is something not just on paper. But then why are some of the government e-governance initiatives now insisting on Microsoft products like Windows? For e.g. The Higher Secondary admissions is now simplified through a Single Window system, but using Windows, so is the Child Census program and data entry application for the matriculation exam.

The Free Software Foundation of India has noted this and have recently sent a letter to the State Minister in charge of Education. This is what they wrote.

“
Dear Sir,

Subject: Forcing schools to use proprietary software illegally
 
During the last few decades, Kerala has been following a unique development path that has been considered a model for the rest of the country and even other underdeveloped countries. Kerala again showed a model to the world with its vision to build an inclusive Knowledge society. Its IT Policy clearly states that the "Government realizes that Free Software presents a truly unique opportunity in building a truly egalitarian knowledge society. The Government will take all efforts to develop Free Software and Free Knowledge and shall encourage and mandate the appropriate use of Free Software in all ICT initiatives." (Section 2.10, IT Policy document, Kerala Govt).  We congratulate the government for its efforts to support Free Software and free knowledge initiatives. Schools, KSEB, Kerala State Khadi Board etc. successfully completed their migration to Free Software. Public sector initiatives like Keltron are doing mega projects completely in Free Software. With these examples, the state showed that "Free Software" is a feasible technological alternative to any proprietary technology.
 
Under the leadership of the IT@School project, the schools in Kerala were the first to successfully migrate to Free Software. The migration to GNU/Linux operating system and software tools not only saved money but also helped teachers to keep their ethical and moral values by allowing students and others to share the software they use.

However, we would like to point out some aberrations from the stated policy particularly in the e-governance initiatives of the education department, like the Higher Secondary Single Window system, data entry application for SSLC, Child Census, etc. The above stated e-governance projects necessitated the installation of Microsoft Windows operating system as the software for the above projects were dependent on that operating system. This has forced the schools to install these proprietary operating systems. Most of the schools do not have the necessary licenses for these proprietary systems and consequently, they have to install and use illegal copies of the operating system. By using unauthorized copies of proprietary software, the schools and the teachers who install the operating system are breaking the law. This also puts the teachers in a moral dilemma of having to use proprietary software while teaching and promoting Free Software. Also, it is a clear violation of the IT policy of the state.

The software used for data entry operations are very simple applications which are very easy to build on a free software platform. Also, as all schools in Kerala have already migrated to Free Software, it is easy for them to use a software that works in GNU/Linux. An example is the IT Practical Examination software. Around 5 lakhs students used the IT Practical Examination software for SSLC this year without any problems, and it was made completely using Free Software technology. Government agencies like Keltron, CDAC etc have proved their capabilities in building software using free software technology.

We hope that the State will keep up to the leadership role it has taken in the adoption of Free Software in the education sector. We strongly recommend the government to stand by its policy to use only Free Software in all government departments and convert all software installed and used in schools to free software technology.

Looking forward to your support in spreading the use of free software
 
Thanking you
Best regards
 
Dr. Nagarjuna G.
Chairperson, FSF India.
“

Techgoss note:   www.gnu.org.in  describes Free Software Foundation as an organization who will zealously guard software freedoms.  Put simply, FSF are against big software companies like Microsoft owning much of the software,  and their mission is to “ promote the development and use of free software and free documentation. In particular, FSF promotes the GNU operating system, used widely today in its GNU/Linux variant, based on the Linux kernel developed by Linus Torvalds. These systems are often mistakenly called just `Linux'; calling them `GNU/Linux' corrects this confusion.”