[PLUG] Sir, the whole country is burning and you are dreaming award for spoken tutorials !

Sun Jan 17 12:01:19 IST 2016

THE WHOLE COUNTRY IS BURNING & YOU ARE DREAMING ABOUT AWARD FOR SOPKEN 
TUTORIAL !

OPEN LETTER TO PROF KANNAN (IIT , MUMBAI)

Dear Prof Kannan

Sir,

I am really very happy if you get award but ....

Please read it carefully
====================================
(True Copy)

Government of India
Ministry of Human Resource Development
(School-5 Section)
New Delhi, Shastri Bhavan
Dated : 17.06.2014

Subject: National Policy on Information and Communication Technology in 
School Education to adopt free and open source software (FOSS) Regarding.

Sir/Madam,

1. The undersigned is directed to refer herewith to a letter received in 
the Ministry of Human Resource Development on the subject mentioned 
above and to say that attention of MHRD has been called to the National 
Education Policy on Information Communication Technology (NPICT) in 
School Education, All Central/State SSC/HSC boards have ICT subject in 
their curriculum and conduct the Examination on ICT papers. Softwares 
like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, M.S. Window, M.S. Office 
software has been made mandatory for framing and answering in the 
examination by Boards and a huge amount is spent for acquiring 
proprietary software by the affiliated schools. This decision of the 
Boards etc. is not in line with NPICT in school education. There is a 
concern that the amount spent on acquiring proprietary licensed software 
is recovered from the students, which brings serious implication on poor 
and needy students.

2. As you are aware that national ICT policy in School Education 
underlines a preference to adopt free and open source software-operating 
system and software applications in order to expand the range of 
learning creation and sharing. The ICT curriculum developed by the NCERT 
for the ICT at schools scheme of the MHRD is based on a Free and Open 
Source Platform and includes an operating system with pre-installed 
software for all application. State Government is advised to adopt the 
ICT curriculum and model your syllabi around this curriculum.

3. In the light of above you may consider an advisory to be issued to 
all educational bodies in the State/UT, to guide and suggest multiple 
and generic alternatives for the ICT content and to prefer free and open 
source alternatives, making ICT education cost effective and ethical.

4. The action taken report may be furnished to the Ministry at the earliest.

(Subhendu Das)
Under Secretary (RMSA-1)

To
Education Secretary (All States/Uts)

Copy To :

1. RMSA State Project Director of all States/Uts

2. P. A. Inamdar, Member CABE

3. Joint Director, CIET/NCERT

==================================================
It is clear that MHRD has violated its own policy deliberately in favor 
of Microsoft right from 2012 or perhaps before that.

Even after their Notification/Memo to all states, go to any school, 
college, university and government office and see with open eyes how 
Microsoft is worshiped, spending trillions of dollars of foreign 
currency and pushing our country in to a danger zone !

Following is a written documented evidence of unfortunate (and 
deliberate) negligence of Maharashtra State (and most of the other states).
=========================================

Taken from RTI reply received to me from MHRD dated 21 Sept 15:
..........
..........
With regard to the item no. 3 of the RTI application the CPIO concerned 
has informed that no action taken report has been received from the 
State of Maharashtra in respect of the Ministry of Human Resource 
Development letter dated 17.06.2014. Therefore no copy of action taken 
report from State of Maharashtra can be provided.
The appeal has been accordingly disposed off.

================================================

Do you really think that spoken tutorial is doing something great in 
FOSS ????

Far more serious thing is that MHRD is funding spoken tutorials clearly 
knowing that thousand such spoken tutorials cannot do any harm to 
proprietary giants like Microsoft and others unless MHRD removes 
proprietary software from school. (Have you forgot Richard Stallman ?)

Why don't you ask MHRD about NOT following their own policy before 
accepting funds from them as your mission is FOSS ??!!

I have done the following instead of spoken tutorials ( since I am not 
IIT Professor but a school teacher)

=================================================

Sir/Madam, Your case is filed in Bombay High Court on 2015-08-06 11:28:58,
Case Stamp Number is PIL/21299/2015 And CIN No is 01006212992015

CASE NUMBER PIL/21299/2015
PETITIONER MILIND S. OKA
V/S
RESPONDENT THE UNION OF INDIA THROUGH THE SECRETARY AND ANR

Prayer Sought : Remove Microsoft and other proprietary softwares from 
school curriculum as per the education policy. Government is violating 
its own policies and using schools as instruments to promote Proprietary 
Software.

==================================================

Sir, I hope you will do the needful for our country. You have far more 
knowledge, potential and intelligence than me. Why are you not 
protesting OPENLY about this violation ?

जरी उद्धरणी, व्यय न तिच्या हो साचा
हा व्यर्थ भार विद्येचा.

(What good is this futile burden of education, if it is not used for the 
betterment of my motherland.)

-- Freedom Fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Waiting eagerly for your reply...

Regards,

Milind Oka

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: "HT for Mumbai" Award: Please vote for Prof. Kannan Moudgalya.
Date: Sat, 09 Jan 2016 04:37:03 -0000
From: administrator at spoken-tutorial.org
To: oak445 at gmail.com

Greetings from the Spoken Tutorial Project, IIT Bombay.

Prof Kannan Moudgalya, who leads the efforts of the Spoken Tutorial 
Project, has been nominated for the Hindustan Times "HT for Mumbai 
awards" 2015.

 >From his profile that appeared in Hindustan Times 
(http://spoken-tutorial.org/media/news/772/772.pdf 
<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fspoken-tutorial.org%2Fmedia%2Fnews%2F772%2F772.pdf&h=aAQHMhylDAQH89-pawAVygHgaA6MHu2rclq4NKLlOzGlHJg&enc=AZMY_ZQZX-BkQF_7FVWBZYjBkUISK_GOX2HlYVV0zvvQyeDZDI1i21JYl7WnizzQk1H8qClVJywtd7y5K6dg0B8y3NZ3AycdJW82VAQfGYReaDuRw2ywP43P2dY0p_J2y_hpghB8Km2ZvJqweona680y8KoX_9kKeAiUK8aV0lRFQrwnE-c4ZNCOCxH-SV8Uev7v-AfZJbYSucRWn8X7aXzk&s=1>), 
you will see that this is a recognition of our IT literacy campaign 
through Spoken Tutorials.

Pls visit this link and vote for him under the individual nominees 
category. His victory is the Project's victory.
http://spoken-tutorial.org/ht-for-mumbai-nomination/ 
<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fspoken-tutorial.org%2Fht-for-mumbai-nomination%2F&h=_AQHQyGeUAQEQLKwXmU3l1d0v803XrEiQtOtNo4M6_JSfdA&enc=AZMJszDXcE2J6_GOqFct2UNCvdksWx1QEOensIIBuF0lsT5i-X2h4IKb08-POoyud-uAndmCoqta3GGGHIxtFsnmXzTlDSAzsw7aLj46jbK6Khp7KGTXVwIB8EuGyvLZJNJrpx8mV6B2AeH7RtlssMYn8Sm4TZb3kExnGg4COjouFPLKgi4S3vk_5_OP4Z_gfnAJD_P4vsHXlO_2TyUhh-6D&s=1>

Spread the word and help him and our Project win!

Last date for voting is 9 Jan 2016.

Thank you in advance.

--
Regards,
Spoken Tutorial Team,
IIT Bombay.

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