South African Education Department Bans Free and Open Source Software 185
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."
Re:wait a minute (Score:5, Informative)
Re:(sniffs cautiously) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:(sniffs cautiously) (Score:4, Informative)
Or...
Trying to have some sort of standard so they are not trying to teach around many different platforms, and Open Source isn't the issue.
Most of these schools already have a Microsoft license, having some kids do stuff in OpenOffice, or LIbreoffice... Means teachers who are already under stress needs to know how to deal with many platforms.
As for Delphi... My best guess it they want for focus more on Database application vs Object Oriented.
Saying that they are banning Open Source because of this is like saying a group of people are not your friends just because they didn't invite you to a particular party.
Should they be teaching Open Source, absolutely, the more you are taught the better you are... However if you need to pick and choose, then Open Source may not always be the best option.
SA Educational plans and pricing for Office 365 (Score:5, Informative)
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 [microsoft.com] [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?
Ethics (Score:3, Informative)
In ethics there is a concept known as "conflict of interest [wikipedia.org]". In almost every instance where someone trots out the line "Never ascribe to malice..." they are responding to a question about someone's potential conflict of interest.
Especially when those in position of trust and authority are involved in improper decisions, it is unethical to trot out the "Never ascribe to malice..." line. Their position of trust and authority obligates them, and their would-be defenders to being open to additional scrutiny as to potential conflicts of interest.
Re:incompetence is passive malice (Score:3, Informative)
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.