In one of the most progressive and innovative educational reforms ever undertaken in India, Kerala has decided to embrace open source in a massive way.
In an unprecedented move, Kerala has decided to use Linux OS, which is an opensource operating system, and stop using ‘proprietary’ applications and OS.
Officially, Kerala school officials and Govt. officials haven’t declared that they are ditching Windows OS but rather using the term ‘proprietary’ applications and OS.
However, it is common knowledge, that Windows is the most widely used OS in India and everywhere else, and by using Linux OS, Kerala has basically stopped using Windows in schools.
This is a revolutionary step, and it can trigger an educational reform.
The reason? Kerala schools will save Rs 3000 crore by saying yes to Linux.
Kerala Schools: We Will Use Linux & Save Rs 3000 Crore
KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) is a special purpose vehicle company under Education Department of Kerala, whose primary responsibility is to ‘support ICT enabled education for schools in Kerala’ (as per Wikipedia)
Under this mission, they have decided to install Linux OS across every school in the state.
For this purpose, a special version of Linux OS: IT@School GNU/ Linux 18.04 based on Ubuntu OS has been rolled out.
K Anvar Sadath, vice-chairman and executive director of KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education) confirmed this development, as he said that 1,50,000 primary teachers will be trained for this initiative. More than 200,000 computers will now have the latest Linux-based Free Operating System (FOSS).
Rs 3000 Crore Will Be Saved
In case Kerala schools decided to use ‘proprietary’ OS and applications (read Windows), then they would have to spend Rs 1.5 lakh per computer in license fees.
However, besides the factor of saving money in licensing costs, there also exists the factor of freedom, and choice.
Anjali Krishnan, a school teacher who is receiving the training said, “More than Rs 3,000-crore savings, we feel the key advantage of going for free OS is the ability to study, share, edit and publish without restrictions.”
However, there is a grey area here: How will the students cope when they venture out to the real world, where 90% of the computer systems are running Windows?
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