"SA Education Department Bans Free and Open Source Software"

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Fingolfin

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"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."

Original article:
http://dkeats.com/index.php?module=...21Srv8Nme0_40332_1381256759&userid=7050120123

Government circular:
http://dkeats.com/usrfiles/users/7050120123/S9/SKMBT_22313100312200.pdf

Slashdot comments:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/1...department-bans-free-and-open-source-software
 
This must be a new circular that only is to be required from next year onwards. We just wrote the DEC matric CAT exam on Tuesday and we had the option for office 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013. I use 2010 on all my machines so it's not like it affects me very much.
 
S7wede said:
This must be a new circular that only is to be required from next year onwards. We just wrote the DEC matric CAT exam on Tuesday and we had the option for office 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013. I use 2010 on all my machines so it's not like it affects me very much.
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You mean curriculum? :p

Eish, I pity our future youth.
They won't have the option to do IT properly, because only one computer will have Windows and Office.
 
froot said:
You mean curriculum? :p

Eish, I pity our future youth.
They won't have the option to do IT properly, because only one computer will have Windows and Office.
Click to expand...

No, I mean circular

Circular may refer to:
The shape of a circle
Circular reasoning, a type of logical fallacy
Flyer (pamphlet), a form of advertisement
Circular Letter (Interlingua), an early Interlingua newsletter published from 1954 to 1965, when it was expanded and renamed Lingua e Vita
Circular (album), the second studio album by Spanish singer Vega

it's what we in the education biz, call everything pushed out by the department.
 
...are now locked into costly Microsoft licensing because of this decision
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O RLY

Now why can't I activate any installation online anymore with my school volume license key.

I always have to activate MS Office and Windows 7, telephonically.
 
Picard said:
O RLY

Now why can't I activate any installation online anymore with my school volume license key.

I always have to activate MS Office and Windows 7, telephonically.
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Yes, the Microsoft Schools Agreement hasn't been in effect for the last 3 years AFAIK. It's become almost impossible to budget for the new school year because all of a sudden we have to factor in licencing fees for the operating systems and office suites.
 
S7wede said:
Yes, the Microsoft Schools Agreement hasn't been in effect for the last 3 years AFAIK. It's become almost impossible to budget for the new school year because all of a sudden we have to factor in licencing fees for the operating systems and office suites.
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Just pirate it like some schools do;)
 
"Addressing the students in the audience, Stallman said that they should refuse to write code or participate in projects that won’t be released under free software licences, as part of his mission to discourage proprietary software on the grounds of personal freedom."
“Your responsibility is to pressure the school to move to free software and teach people to recognise the issue,” he said, “Personal resistance is very effective.”"

http://www.htxt.co.za/2013/08/31/richard-stallman-says-you-must-fight-etolls/

"He touched on software used in schools, exhorting educators to think about the larger consequences of software usage, and putting students on the right track - to empower them to realise they are in control of the software, and not just treat it as a purchased item that remains the property of the software company."

http://blog.wizzy.com/post/Stallman

The actual speech in essay form, link to section on education and software:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-digital-society.html#education

"Why Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software":

https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-schools.html

"Why Free Software Is More Important Now Than Ever Before":

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/09/why-free-software-is-more-important-now-than-ever-before/

Other bits:

"Stallman also advocated that free-to-edit-and-share software be used in schools. I think that this encourages school children to become creative and independent – two skills whose development our current public school curriculum does not adequately cater for. Stallman also encouraged students, parents and teachers to actively play a part in trying to encourage schools to use proprietary-free software. The problem I see with this, however, is that a) not that many schoolchildren in SA are taught computer skills in any case b) it would be impractical to teach children to use software that they will most probably not encounter again after leaving school (not every child is going to work in the IT industry after leaving school)."

http://arobasarabesque.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/my-take-on-richard-stallmans-talk-uct/
 
S7wede said:
This must be a new circular that only is to be required from next year onwards. We just wrote the DEC matric CAT exam on Tuesday and we had the option for office 2003, 2007, 2010 and 2013. I use 2010 on all my machines so it's not like it affects me very much.
Click to expand...

Please choose A) Microsoft, B) Microsoft, C) Microsoft, D) Microsoft

Note that Bill Gates is pushing InBloom (tm)(r), a surveillance-based "education career tracking system" for the sterling future youth of the New Digital Order:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/10/06/2344246/all-your-childs-data-are-belong-to-inbloom
 
I think Mr. Stallman needs pay a visit to the Department of Basic Education the next time he's around, or better yet... write a blog post scrutinizing their tactics(like with Canonical).
 
Garyvdh said:
I doubt it... people will move to those browsers and standards that rely on free technologies...
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But "people" have proved that they don't. Many still use IE, most use windows (more and more likely to be an NSA trojan horse), I'm the only person I know who has voiced discontent about the proprietary Adobe-based SARSE-filing implementation we are forced to use if we are avoid ridiculous queues outside a SARS building. People install XBoxes in their homes, use tablets and phones of all sorts that are anything but transparent and open. People install Google Chrome, when the only difference between it and Chromium is the acknowledged ID tracker. People use MS Outlook for email, or even worse, GMail, when they could use one of many open source email clients. People install plugins like Flash, and binary Java run-times, they use the Rapport "security" plugin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusteer) for their browser to make the game of InternetBanking! "safer", which runs 24/7 even when the browser is closed. They install a myriad of bloated "Antivirus" packages that do who knows what all day long.

Garyvdh said:
...at least there will always be some who ascribe to those standards.
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That will mean very little when eventually all "essential services" and mainstream "consumer" transactions and communications become mediated by opaque black-boxes dripping with surveillance that (in the "ideal" pursued by the Lords) nobody can debug, hack, investigate, test or learn anything from.

http://www.gamification.co/

Nobody must be allowed to survive outside The System.
The System will come to you: http://www.csmonitor.com/1987/0112/fkmart.html/(page)/3
 
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I'm all for FOSS and advocate it loudly when given the chance, but I'm also all for CHOICE!

"Why Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software":
Click to expand...
Never, we must never remove choice, and this is one of the main gripes I have with Stallman.

I have nothing against schools using MS products, to their own detriment, but then they must recognize my choice to use FOSS and allow my children to use FOSS. This will be an interesting battle when my children have to cross that bridge in a couple of years...
 
MyWorld said:
I'm all for FOSS and advocate it loudly when given the chance
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Awesome.

MyWorld said:
...but I'm also all for CHOICE!
Never, we must never remove choice
Click to expand...

Let's hope you can continue to champion the cause of choice when it comes to means and methods of civil participation: banking, taxes, medical care and record-keeping, shopping, commenting on news sites, interacting on forums, mingling with people, communicating over the airwaves.

These days I see less and less actual choice for all the "variety".

* "Log in now with Facebook!" (sorry we disabled the old login system)
* "Come and join us on Google+!" (sorry we disabled the old forum)
* "Do your banking at home with our new app!" (sorry we closed 5 banking branches, and at the branches we keep open, only 1 or 2 of the 10 tellers counters are open)
* "Transfer money to your beneficiaries!" (sorry you have to register them as an EFT and then go outside and do it at the robot (ATM), otherwise for the teller to do it manually, it will cost R150)
* "Sorry, you must provide a copy of your ID before you buy this cheap, second hand bookshelf."
* "You can easily transfer your number from Vodacom to MTN, or any other service provider!" (but every single one is mandated by legislation to take your details, and spy on you)
* "e-Tags are optional". (chuckle...and if you don't want to pay tolls, there are other roads, for now...)

MyWorld said:
I have nothing against schools using MS products, to their own detriment
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..and what of the students who don't even know they have a choice? MS, like other big vendors in their own fields, spend a lot of money to ensure large numbers of people never consider a world exists outside of their walled garden.

MyWorld said:
but then they must recognize my choice to use FOSS and allow my children to use FOSS.
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Agreed, but will it happen?
 
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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.
 
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