[school-discuss] Indian Education system : forcing schools to use Micro$oft and Oracle.

[Arjun Asthana <arjunasthana@gmx.net>]

The schools' syllabus in India is decided by Central Board of Secondary 
Education. The IT syllabus clearly specifies use of proprietory software and 
the question papers (for examnation) are also focussed on M$ and Oracle.

Same is the position of AICTE, which specifies syllaus for technical 
institutions.

Our efforts to locally promote Linux in schools have been hit by this factor, 
where teachers have expressed inability to use Linux/OSS due to the syllabus.

I was told by one of the people earlier involved with CBSE that the original 
syllabus carried terms specifying 'alternate', 'similar', 'any other' at 
appropriate places so that other platforms could be used for teaching, but a 
'clerical' error magically lead to the removal of these terms from specific 
places.

What hjas been the experience of other contries? Have the financial muscle of 
the big vendors succeeded in armtwisting the education authorities?

Regards
Atul