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South African Education Department Bans Free and Open Source Software
An anonymous reader writes "The South African Education Department has effectively banned the use of FOSS software in state-run schools by forcing all candidates writing the Computer Applications Technology examination to use Microsoft's Office 2010 or 2013 as the only supported options. In the same circular, the state has mandated that all schools use Delphi, instead of Java, as the programming language for the country's Information Technology practical paper. South Africa, notorious for its poor performance in Maths and Science and for having vastly over-crowded and underfunded schools, are now locked into costly Microsoft licensing because of this decision."
Well, I don't smell any hint of corruption here, no sirree!
</sarcasm>
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
How many people where bribed to make this deal?
"The South African Education Department has effectively banned the use of FOSS software in state-run schools by forcing all candidates writing the Computer Applications Technology examination to use Microsoft's Office 2010 or 2013 as the only supported options."
Fascinating, apparently MS-South Africa has sophisticated technology that seeks out and destroys all open source software simply because Microsoft Office is used for some tasks. This new learning is amazing! Tell me again how sheep-bladders can be used to prevent earthquakes!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Mark Shuttleworth, please speak up!
Side effect of the Gates foundation aid to Africa?
In SA, they do not call it a kick back, they call it a "Facilitation Fee" :P
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
I'm not afraid to admit I use a quite of commercial software and have been quite happy with many products out there. Yes even a few MS ones. But as a person with a functioning brain and an interest in productivity you can bet your ass every time I'm looking at an upgrade I take a moment to survey the options. Often over the course of a major version upgrade cycle I learn that a cheaper or if I'm lucky an OSS solution has become viable for my needs. Any time I see an organization act outside of that simple principle I can suspect only one of two things and neither are good. I usually hope it's just narrow minded ignorance, which with luck can sometimes be cured, but when you lock people into a paid-for only solution it usually ends up being bribery of some sort. Governments are in the end just made up of people, and like in the corporate world the decision makers are often the most selfcentered people in the land. Add to that despite using and recommending certain MS programs and services I have little doubt in my mind that MS is one of the most unethical technology companies in the world- it's how they got where they are.
If my $10 mil company can't afford Office 2013 and is switching to Libre, how the hell can an African school system afford it?
If my $10 mil company can't afford Office 2013 and is switching to Libre, how the hell can an African school system afford it?
Office 365 plans and pricing for education [South Africa]
Plan A3
Students:
R 23,30 user/month
Faculty and staff:
R 42,00 user/month
1 South African Rand = 10 cents US.
Includes:
Hosted e-mail. 25 GB/user.
Web conferencing, supports HD video, etc.
3,000 SharePoint team sites.
Active directory integration
24/7 phone support
Anti-spam and anti-malware
Office Web Apps
MS Office "Pro" Suite for 5 PCs or Macs/user
Advanced e-mail, advanced voice mail.
May include "MS Office Anywhere" --- stream full Office apps to any PC.
So what are your monthly costs per user for an equivalent bundle of applications and services? How well does Libre Office integrate with third party applications and resources?
That's not very Ubuntu feelings, I can feel.
In the discussion below the original article, it is noted that Microsoft provides free software to the schools covered by this directive.
If a cigarette company wants to supply free cigarettes to your students, should you accept?
In the discussion below the article, someone from the State Information Technology Agency writes:
If I had not seen the memo myself I would not have believed it.... DBE was actually busy drafting an excellent guideline for e-Education which was solidly grounded on FOSS and MIOS, also mentioning ODF, and still allowing room for proprietary software where there was really no alternative. This is really going to upset Provinces that have been teaching Java (one of the top 10 languages in use worldwide). It is a clear step backwards. Education had the opportunity to push out a positive wave of change but this will have the exact opposite effect. Worst it constricts the opportunity to explore and experiment with the software. I really don't want to even think of the cost. I have heard some schools already starting to total up the cost to convert back to MS Office...
Clearly, they knew what they were undermining.
From the body of the article:
The South African government has a Free and Open Source Software Policy, that was promulgated in 2007, and this directive is counter to that policy completely in that it FORCES the implementation of proprietary technologies where viable FOSS alternatives exists in contradiction to government's own policy.
To further bolster your point, in cases of conflict of interest, it is not simply about whether there is actual corruption, but also whether there is the appearance of or the potential for corruption...the reason being that even if there is no actual malice going on, any potential conflict of interest will allow people to assume there *is* malfeasance happening, which will erode trust in the institution in question. Thus "never ascribe to malice..." is quite beside the point in such cases...if there's any question that there could be malice, you already have a problem.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
"When Samsung packaged a solar-powered classroom for Africa’s remote communities, it shipped a GNU/Linux solution but M$ intervened"
"Working together with Reza Bardien, our Education Lead, we managed to turn this into an end to end Windows solution by the end of the week"
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Solar Powered Schools – Linux Win
In the week of 16 January, Samsung Africa launched its first Solar Powered Internet Schools. These 40 ft solar powered containers are designed for use in remote rural education communities with limited, or no access to electricity. This is a world first and shows great innovation from our partners.
However, this solution with little education relevance (all 20 student laptops as well as the teacher one) was a complete Linex solution at the time of launch. Working together with Reza Bardien, our Education Lead, we managed to turn this into an end to end Windows solution by the end of the week, including the PIL Learning Suite and the Windows-based NETOP Classroom Management solution.
By Friday morning, when Samsung demonstrated its solution to press and stakeholders, the solution was based on a Microsoft platform. This container (and the next 10 containers going into Africa and South Africa) will include devices running on a Microsoft platform only, so the students learning on these devices will be running and learning on Windows.
Some great cross group collaboration between the Windows BG, the Education Public Sector, NETOP and Jacques from OEM who assisted.
Thank you all!
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