Linux-based teaching in 2,200 rural schools in MP

Red Hat India has partnered with Madhya Pradesh state government constituted Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission (RGSM) under the Headstart program to help bring computer-enabled education to the masses in the state. The first phase of 2,200 schools was rolled out today. This makes it the biggest implementation of open source technologies in schools in the country to date.

RGSM's aim is to universalize access to elementary education and improve its quality. RGSM's Headstart is currently the country's largest computer-enabled education program at the middle school level in rural India.

Red Hat has worked closely to ensure that all of RGSM's needs were met on the technical front. This included customization of Red Hat Linux for the largely Hindi-speaking audience. To ensure on-going support, Red Hat has set up a support center in Bhopal. To ensure that RGSM faculties were empowered to use Linux to its fullest, the company conducted a training program for 6,500 teachers across the state within 60 days. Red Hat also trained its partner's system support engineers on its products.

Said Javed Tapia, Director (India), Red Hat, who is personally supervising this project, "Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission has been extremely focussed on its goal of using computers as an aid to learning and we at Red Hat have ensured that their goal can be achieved in a cost effective and time-bound manner with the use of best open source technology."

Cyber News Service