[fsug-calicut] IT@Schools program
- From: Ajith Kumar <ajith@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: fsug-calicut@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 19:05:54 +0530
Hello All,
visit the site
http://www.keralaeducation.org/itschool/project.htm
and find out how the IT has been sold of to contractors.
Try to educate the school PTAs using the attached proposal.
ajith
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What's wrong with IT@schools[1] implementation
In order to implement the project government certainly need to set some
guidelines regarding the objectives and quality of the program. This could
have been done simply by drafting a proper syllabus and insist on covering
that syllabus and also specifying the number of hours each student get for
theory and practicals. But what has been done is allowing few private
agencies to exploit the poor students and paving way to waste precious
foreign exchange by promoting the products of a Multinational Corporation.
Implementation
The Govt. has authorized few private agencies and created a sort of monopoly
in this field. The credentials of these agencies in the field of education
isnot known. Many are only computer vendors and others are in the business
running teaching shops. They have already started subcontracting the work by
pocketing their commission. Do we need another Abakari like system in the
field of education also.
If the government only specify the syllabus and insist on the the facility
tocover the same, Schools can look for the best deal available from the
private agencies. In fact almost all the districts have enough number of
people who are willing to take-up this job for the lowest cost possible.
The minimum qualification of the instructors, fixed by the guidelines, is
only plus two. If they don't know anything about computers, they need to
takea qualifying exam. That's all. Kerala has thousands of unemployed PGDCA
holders and even the computer institutes mushroomed all over Kerala employ
atleast a PGDCA fellow for teaching. The experts who drafted the guidelines
to ensure the quality of education has lowered to a level that exists
withoutany government control. This will only help the selected private
agencies to make more money by paying less to the instructors.
The Syllabus
Any academic syllabus should contain the subject to be taught and not the
product of any particular vendor. But according to our IT experts, MSWord is
a must for wordprocessing. The syllabus specifically mentions MSWord when
there are several other programs doing the same job. MSOffice comes as a
partof a package calls MSOffice and cost of installing on a single machine
isaround Rs.20,000/-. The same is true for Windows Operating system also.
Thetotal cost of software per computer will be around Rs.25,000/-.
Organizations, especially schools, all over the world are moving towards the
highly reliable and efficient GNU/Linux which is available free of cost.
Under these situation the reason for including the products of an MNC in the
syllabus require some explanation. BAMS syllabus may mention about
Chyavanaprasham but it should not insist on the doctor prescribing, say
DaburChyavanaprasham.
Cost Effective System using GNU/Linux and Terminals Server
The Linux also have software to reduce the hardware cost by using diskless
PCs. Hardware Cost of setting up a 10 terminal system is less than Rs.2 laks
and each additional PC costs around Rs.14,000/-. Government should help the
schools to mobilize the initial investment to acquire this setup and in th
long run every school will have a good computer lab. If it cannot do that,
itshould not become a burden to schools by forcing them to depend on a few
selected agencies. By seeing the guidelines it is clear that the motive
behind selecting few agencies is not ensuring quality but to open up another
area for curruption.
They are allowed to use the free time for running classes for others and
makemoney. Anyone familiar with this field knows that the major investment
insetting up an institute is space and not computers. That will be now
provided by schools so that somebody else can make money. Why not introduce
some scheme to help the PTAs by some loan and they can repay it by running
some computer literacy programs for the common public. School PTA and
studentorganizations should come forward and clearly tell the government
thatif it cannot help then stay away without creating hurdles. If each
student is paying Rs.25/- that should lead to a pemanent computer lab in
every school and not for the benefit of few who has the right connections.
--- Links ---
1 mailto:IT@schools
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IT@SCHOOL PROJECT
A Cost effective implementation
TO
The Presidents/Secretary/manager
PTA/School
Dear Sir,
Government of Kerala have proposed to introduce the IT @ SCHOOL PROJECT for
providing computer education to all the school children of the State. As per
the guideline formulated by the government, there are three options to
implement it.
Option A:
School PTA/Management to setup the building, furniture, electricity
connection and the computers and instructors.
Option B:
School PTA/management to provide building, furniture and electricity
connection. Kudumbasree local organization arranges computers and
instructors.
Option C:
School PTA/management to provide building, furniture and electricity
connection. The Empanneled Private Agency arranges computers and
instructors.
Under all the three options, It is the responsibility of the School to
arrange for the major items like building, furniture and electricity
connection. The only difference between A and C s that, under C the
computersand instructors are supplied by a private agency for which the
school has to pay every month. If the school can somehow manage the initial
expenditure, Option 'A' gives them the following advantages.
School will own the computers and over the coming years only maintenance
costis required. In fact computers available today have several years of
lifetime. School can arrange good and well qualified Instructors. Option 'C'
allows the private operator to utilize the computers for training other
people when it is idle. The same option can be utilized by the school to
generate more income. School will have the complete control of the
operationsand the tussles in dealing with private agencies working for
profitcan be avoided.
This proposal explains how to setup a cost effective and easy to maintain
School Computer Lab. It is possible to setup 10 computer terminals with all
the software required for schools with a minimal investment as low as Rs 2
lakhs. Each additional terminal costs around Rs. 14,000/- only. Each
Terminalacts like a full fledged PC. This is made possible with the use of
widely used GNU/Linux based LTSP( Linux Terminal Server Project). This
systemis currently used by many schools and other organizations all over the
world. Using Free Software based operating systems and packages, it has been
proved beyond doubt that, LTS is the best approach that can be adopted by
ourschools .
Hardware Requirements
LTS runs on the standard PC hardware. The Server is a complete PC with
reasonable processing power and the Terminals are low end PCs without and
hard-disk, floppy or CD drives. The requirement of a 10 terminal system with
Office suite, communication and programming tools are given below along with
the cost estimate.
Server
A 1 GHz Pentium3 machine with 512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk is sufficient to
support20 - 30 terminals. The cost of such system is around Rs. 40,000/-
only.
Terminals
Terminals are normal PCs without floppy, hard-disk or CD drives. The CPU
neednot be very fast and 64MB RAM is good enough. The cost of a 15" color
Terminal with sound support and network card is around Rs.14,000/- only.
Networking
A 16 port fast ethernet hub and proper cabling will cost around Rs.
15,000/-.
UPS
UPS systems are meant for preventing the data corruption due to power
failure. In an LTS system, only the Server need to have the UPS. It will
costRs.5000/-
Printer
A Color Printer will cost Rs. 6000/-. It will be connected to the Server and
will be accessible from all other machines.
Total Cost:
For 10 Terminal System : Rs. 206000/-
Each additional PC will cost Rs: 14,000/- only.
Software Requirements
On the server we can install one of the GNU/Linux Distributions like RedHat
or Debian and it costs nothing. All the software required for school has
beencompiled into a CD (GNU Linux Utilities for Education, GLUE) by a team
ofscientists and engineers at Nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi. This has
been used by many schools in India. Setting up a school network using GLUE
CDtakes only few hours. It contains Office Package for word processing,
spreadsheet and presentations. It also contains programming language tools
for LOGO, BASIC, C, C++ and other languages. Educational software for
sciencesubjects also is included. This CD is distributed by Free Software
User Group(FSUG), Calicut. They also provide free technical support for
setting up LTS systems at schools. Several LTS systems are running at
Calicutand for a demo contact Mr.Rajeesh (res: 0495 355 415 ), member FSUG,
Calicut.
Advantages of GNU/Linux based Terminal Server System
*
Reduced Hardware costs.
*
Easy to setup and maintain. You need to install software only on one system
and just use it from all others.
*
Less maintenance. Most of the time the components like hard disks that are
having moving parts goes bad. Diskless PCs have no moving part other than
thecooling fan.
*
UPS power only for the server if the power does not fail every half an hour.
In a training environment the UPS is mainly to prevent software corruption
bypower failure. Terminals does not require it.
*
Software comes under the GNU General public license. According to the
licenseterms we can use it on any number of PCs, modify and redistribute it.
For proprietary software like Windows, we don't get this advantages even
after paying huge amount of license fee.
Cost Aspects
The major issue is to generate the Rs. 2 lakhs for the initial hardware
cost.If School can mobilize it, after implementation, a regular monthly
collection of Rs.10000/- would be sufficient to pay salary for two persons
and the electricity bill etc. This amount can be collected form the
students.The spare time can be used by the school to train other people and
generate additional income.
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FSUG-Calicut Home Page :
//www.freelists.org/webpage/fsug-calicut
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