Is Microsoft bribing its way into the Indian Education System???

Hi!!!

This article was not written out of hatred for Microsoft but purely is analyzing the current state of IT education system that is carried out in India, and in Gujarat, a very wealthy state lying on the Western part of India.

I am linked to a company that works on Open Source technologies such as Drupal, RoR, PHP, Linux etc. We have been breathing opensource like anything... even all our computers run on Linux (Ubuntu) OS.



Recently, we started organizing some seminars in Colleges in order to make students aware of the latest in technology (Drupal, in this case, which won the 2008 Webware Awards). We found that students were very much interested in learning .Net, ASP.Net, C# etc. but not technologies such as PHP, Linux (I heard some people didnt even knew how to use Linux and others were asking what the abbreviation PHP was for).


Investigating the subject, I found that .Net/Microsoft technologies have been integrated in their curriculum and was a part of their courses. I also found that the Microsoft is seeped into the education system right from the point when "Computer course" is made a subject say Std. V.

I was puzzled as so whether Is this not a clear case of brain-wash where the students are only taught what others want them too. A student studying in Std. X doesnt even know that there is an alternative available (no matter the alternative is better or inferior) for Microsoft Office. Also we all try to log into Internet Explorer because we are taught about it and have molded ourselves with it, opening up multiple windows at a time, not knowning that a simple Ctrl+T (Tabbed browsing) can easily solve this simple problem.



So why is Microsoft so much imbibed into the whole IT education system in India. Is is really tough to learn parallel products as to what Microsoft is offering. Or for that matter is Microsoft really offering good products?

Let's look at a very simple example of Microsoft Word. A simple word file of 1 page could be of roughly 32 kb while the same file can easily be less then 9kb if made in a openoffice Word. Also it is much easier to carry on multiple tasks in a LINUX based or Ubuntu based PC's rather than Windows PC. (Aren't we so used to using Ctrl+Alt+Del while using Windows OS as if its part of the routine). I almost forgot that when I was using Ubuntu PC's.

When talking to some students who have studied both Open source and Proprietary (Basically Microsoft) technologies, they said how Open source technologies were not even considered in their curriculum. Students who wanted to learn this and were refrained from alleged that the reason for Microsoft being so much used into the curriculum is for a simple reason that Microsoft bribes key officials of the Education Department of Gujarat, and hence it is so much utilized into the current education system.

There is a team of renowned academicians who presides over a strong committee are asked to propose changes in the curricula which should be in line with the changing trends of the industry. Although many professors have always pushed open source because of its flexibility, due to certain "unknown reasons" it does not appear into the curriculum of the students.

When we talk of democracy/equal exposure to all, while is there a stepmotherly treatment to open source technology. Kids/students have been so much "Forced" to adopt/use Windows as if that is the only technology which is available. Windows has become synonymous to computer in India and i am sure it has been in most of the countries.

It's time we give out an even pitch to both open source and proprietary software to prove their worth. Democracy gives a right for every voter to know what a candidate of a party can do for him. Now its for the voter to decide which side should he go with.

Cheers!!!

~Rajat~