Venkatesh Hariharan wrote:
I was wondering if big corporates like RedHat could use the RHCE model to promote computer education at the school level. They can introduce a light weight course and official certification for learning Linux right from school level. Some goodies could be offered to students who do well in the exams. Their representatives can approach schools and promote this standard curriculum individually to different schools. Already many computer institutes have mushroomed everywhere offering RHCE courses. With a corporate giant stepping in, the principals and management will be convinced much better. The company can promote the virtues of FOSS by focusing on the legal problems of using pirated software and the fact that students can practice computers at home without having to invest a bomb on different proprietary software like OS, Office, Graphics etc.
It is the educationists who should take the lead here and not the technologists. The distro vendors can play a supporting role and be catalysts in the process of creating a FOSS-Edu community because they are the ones who know the education system intimately.
Instead of Govt. schools, corporates can approach normal private schools like convents, which do not require intervention from any education dept. and can induct private certification courses for learning Linux. The Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) syllabus for adults is quite comprehensive for learning Linux from basic to advanced in administration. Likewise Red Hat can create school level certification courses where focus is on use of the OS and its software like OpenOffice, GIMP, Inkscape etc. If it starts happening at least in private schools it can slowly overflow into public schools too.