F/LOSS in Education System in Nepal [Discussion]
From the collected data it can be
seen that most of the teachers are using dual boot operating systems (i.e. both
Microsoft windows and GNU/Linux) in both their home (50%) and educational
institute (57%) whereas the students seem to prefer using only Microsoft
Windows operating systems in both home (50%) and educational institute (45%).
Even though most of the students tend to are using only Microsoft Windows, it
is interesting to see the use of GNU/Linux as the only operating system used in
both of the places (17% and 15% in educational institute and home
respectively). It can be interpreted that some percentage of the students
favour GNU/Linux operating system over the rest whether it is just for
educational projects, normal projects or other purpose. The data also suggests
that the dual boot operating system is popular in both the educational sector
(36%) and in the home desktop (29%). With a high percentage of students using
GNU/Linux operating system and dual boot operating systems in their home (44%),
it can be interpreted that most of the students are interested in using the
GNU/Linux operating system and they are not only using the system in their
university or college.
Most of the teachers are using
Free/Libre and Open Source Software (F/LOSS) because of the availability of the
source code followed by the freedoms that these software offer. The other
reason for its preference for teachers is that is an alternative to illegal
copying. On the other hand, most of the students are using F/LOSS because of
the freedom that this kind of software provided followed by its use as an
alternative to illegal copying. The other reason of F/LOSS preference for
students is that it provides the source code which the students can learn from.
So it can be interpreted from these data that both the teachers and students
are choosing the software mostly because of F/LOSS philosophy rather than the
functionality and perceived ease of use of the software. This is in direct
agreement with Richard Stallman who said that the freedom of the software is
more important than the functionality of the software (Williams, 2002). The
data also suggest that the educator professionals and students are largely
motivated to use F/LOSS.
According to the survey, only 60%
of the teachers who are using proprietary operating system are using licensed
version of the operating system and only 30% have all the software they are
using licensed. 40% of the teachers are using some licensed and some unlicensed
copy of the software whereas 30% are using all of the software which is
unlicensed. Whereas only 38% of the students who is using proprietary operating
system is using the licensed version and only 14% have all the software they
are using licensed. 50% of the students are using all of the software installed
in their desktop unlicensed. In 2006, it was reported that Nepal was
accelerating in becoming a hub of fake software. After extensive and
uncontrolled unauthorized distribution of Microsoft’s products, the company had
grown its concern towards the country. The market was found with software that
were pirated, software that were imitated and legitimate software that were
sold illegally (WebIndia, 2006). So it can be interpreted that operating system
and software piracy is still a major problem in the case of Nepal and even with
the existing cyber law and intellectual property right, fake software is
available freely in the market for anyone to buy and no action is being taken.
The main reason for using an
unlicensed operating system or unlicensed software for both the teachers (80%)
and students (86%) is the cost factor followed by the licensed copy not being
easily available in the market. Inability to find an alternative F/LOSS and
other reason are negligible to the cost factor. If we compare the prices,
Windows 7 Home Premium Full cost £149.99 (MicrosoftStore, 2011 a) which is
equivalent to Rs17,399 in Nepal and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 cost
£109.99 (MicrosoftStore, 2011 b) which is equivalent to Rs.12,760 in Nepal.
With a current GNI per capita (Atlas method, US$) of 400 (The World Bank,
2009), people in Nepal cannot afford to buy the legal copies of the operating
system or software. Almost all of the software CD’s can be found flooded in
Nepal’s market from Rs 50 - 150 which is equivalent to £0.43 - £1.29. Until and
unless something is done to stop such cheap pirated software freely available
anywhere in the country, software piracy rate will keep on increasing. Even
with institute like The Centre for Intellectual Property Nepal (CIPN) which
advocates about copyright, cyber law in awareness programs for school and
colleges (Centre for Intellectual Property Nepal, 2005), the data collected
suggests that these awareness programs have not helped in controlling software
piracy. Enforcement of rules and regulation regarding this and advocating the
alternatives such as F/LOSS may be the way to control the software piracy in
Nepal.
The data also shows that most of
the teachers and students have experienced that F/LOSS has encouraged
innovations. When the students take part in fixing bugs and play with the
available source code to meet their unique needs, it creates innovation
(Subramanyam and Xia, 2008). In order to graduate from University and college,
undergraduate and graduate students work on projects. Some of the students also
work as an intern in an organisation. For example Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
(MPP) offers internship program for graduating students for computer science
and engineering fields. Some of the projects done were spell checker, personal
digital assistant (PDA) localisation, Nepali speech recognition, localisation
of typing tutor etc. Most of these projects are done from already available
source code. Students have showed strong motivation for innovation during these
projects. Nearly same percentage of both the teachers and students has
experienced the teaching/learning to become more interesting and effective
while using F/LOSS. This is followed by the localisation. Nepali is the
national language but there are more than 100 of native languages spoken in
Nepal (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). Localisation has removed the barrier
for utilising computer technology in Nepal as Nepal only a small proportion of
the people are English proficient. It has helped removing the digital divide
(Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, n.d. f). Based on the data and relevant
literature, it can be assumed that F/LOSS has helped to remove digital divide
in country like Nepal and has helped the education sector foster the education
and produce innovative graduates. Though the data suggest that the professional
educators prefer more training program and workshops related to F/LOSS to
utilise the materials more effectively.
Most (65%) of the students think
that the current F/LOSS experience they have will help them in the future with
their carrier while only a small proportion (9%) think that it won’t. 26% are
not sure if the F/LOSS experience will help them in their carrier after
graduation. Again taking the example of internship programs, several fresh
graduates have been employed in the organisation they did their internship in.
Some graduates who were involved in F/LOSS program in MPP while they were doing
their internship continued their research and work even after graduating in
MPP. Some of the students have also demonstrated their skills through
development of software using the available source code and used events like
Software freedom day (SFD) and Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) Info Tech to
exhibit it. These events get numerous visitors including software companies,
government officials and entrepreneurs. For example in CAN Info Tech 2010,
there were a total number of more than 3 million seventy six thousand visitors
(Computer Association of Nepal, 2010). These events provide the opportunity for
the developers to demonstrate their skills and impress the companies. Also with
new laws regarding information technology coming in effect, some of the
companies will be looking for F/LOSS developers. It is safe to assume that the
experience that the students have with F/LOSS in their college and university
will provide them the platform for their carrier after graduation. The data also suggest that most of the
students and teachers strongly think that F/LOSS should be used in the
education sector.
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