South African Dept of Education effectively bans FOSS
dkeats.com
dkeats.com
1) South African teachers/vendors/Education Departments lack the skills to manage non-Microsoft systems. Yes it shouldn't be that way, but it is.
2) Java is not really a great first programming language (see Joel on JavaSchools). Pascal, and, later Delphi have been taught for years, and are well understood by teachers. They should probably just dump Delphi, and stick to Pascal. Attempts to look "relevant" end up looking foolish.
In the early-mid 1990's, when I was in what's today called grade 8 and 9 I did LOGO, for non-examinable Computer Studies, and it was brilliant. Although I didn't choose Computer Studies for my later school years(where Pascal was used), when I got to university, my positive early experiences drew me back into the world of CS. I doubt I would have gotten the same visceral thrill that I got from LOGO, if I had to wrestle with AWT or Swing at the time.
School Computer Studies is NOT meant to be a gateway to a career, and there are plenty of post-school options for people who want to become programmers. Computer Studies isn't even a prerequisite for university CS - everything is taught from scratch again. It also seems like recent graduates of some of the insitutions ("Universities of Technology", formerly Technikons) that supposedly focus on carreer preparedness struggle with concepts like writing loops. Perhaps these Technikons and programming colleges should also focus on the basics first, before worrying about "career readiness".
SA schooling is a mess. Maths and science teachers don't understand their subjects. Teacher unions obstruct reform. We have sunk to the bottom in the world rankings. This particular issue is a meaningless distraction.
I do disagree with this oft regurgitated anecdotal (sorry in advance) shite :-P
"A long time ago, in a country I won't name, I was contracted to provide..."
:P
Wow - if the author has lived a life where software limitations are the greatest injustice experienced, then I am truly jealous.
Funding for the education department has been increased drastically over the last decade or so, but misappropriation of funds, mismanagement, corruption, ineptitude, geographical separation, lack of proper oversight, and just the sheer pressure on the system in terms of the amount of learners it needs to support means this is just another thing that reduces the value for the learners from tax money.
Local industry giants with preferred partner/solution provider status with <INSERT GIANT CORP HERE> will lobby and get F/OSS solutions knocked out of the running especially where public tenders are involved. They will of course then use the corrupt officials co-opted into this process to milk the budget for absurdly expensive solutions to non-existent problems.
A long time ago, in a country I won't name, I was contracted to provide local support for the installations of PCs in rural schools. Upon turning up at the regional center, I had access to a warehouse with a gigantic stack of PCs to be delivered. I merrily went about installing them at every school locally. I've never had more fun or a better challenge, every installation was unique. One site needed a full solar installation because of proximity to a township where power theft was rampant meant electricity on the schools side was virtually never available. At another site, I teamed up with a local carpenter to build 30 simple desks and benches, leaving the hardware sitting on bare concrete floors seemed absurd. For seven months this went on, I never saw another contractor doing the same as I did, yet the pile of PCs diminished so I assumed there must be several others. I queried to find out who they were so we could coordinate, I didn't want to spend hours driving to a site only to find they'd already been. That never happened and I never did get a response.
The problems begun when it came to more remote areas. Firstly there was significantly more hardware per student allocated for the rural areas, than urban areas, which was puzzling. Secondly I was not permitted to go and install them, I was told my fuel expenses wouldn't be covered. When I offered to waive those, I was told there was no point, because they would require upgrades shortly. The vendor advised we leave them another two months and they would have the service packs rolled out in the central storage site, then the hardware could be delivered. Their stated intention was to save the local govt money. How very noble. Over the course of the next month, that pile of undeliverable hardware diminished significantly as the various people from the purchasing process cashed in by selling it to local vendors on the cheap, some of it was probably re-exported. Who knows. Nobody cares, there was no investigation, that was over a decade ago - the entire process has probably repeated several times since then.
It's absurd. It's arrogant. It's corrupt. It's ultimately detrimental to everybody involved and robs the most desperate of a resource that just might have lifted them out of poverty. It's Africa. Sorry for the ramble, I never can just explain how much I love and hate that place.
Edit: spellin'
The government will always do whatever they can for the appropriate campaign favours, a politician or official gives absolutely no care as to how the programs continue after their term, since it doesn't matter; this works especially well when you can tack expenses onto a debt rather than stealing more immediately.
Go to any township market in any Southern African nation you like, those clothes being sold? Go ask them to buy the tarpaulins they were bound in, I guarantee you three things: they'll be blue, the logo will feature a laurel wreathe encircling a globe, and the first two letters will be U and N. You'll probably have noticed them already because many stalls in the market will be using them for roofing.
Of course, UN involvement brings brothels along with the tarps.
Do you know of any charities which actually offer direct distribution?
That said, there're some who make it work. The names escape me (it was long ago) but I've always been impressed with the work of some of the missionaries in the region - they're actually on the ground effecting change and helping people. From what I've seen they tend to avoid unilateral donation/collections, but go in for the specifics. For instance, the school I installed the 30 desks at, they donated virtually all the classroom equipment and props along with an instructor to help local teachers integrate the new material into their classes. As I understand it the financing for all that came from donations through collections in their churches. Now whilst I'm an atheist, that impressed me. The peacecorps too, I've met a lot of them and their hearts are definitely in the right place.
Using MS office makes sense, since majority of businesses use MS office.
Though I would question the use of delphi, someone else posted that delphi is popular in South Africa. As one, I disagree most of the code still being written in delphi is mostly legacy code.
The delphi dev shops have since moved on to .net for e.g my first job was a co that used delphi.
one of the biggest users of delphi in za (mr price) , now mostly do their dev in .net
I think a language like python or ruby would be a much better option.
The key to its portability was that it shipped with an interpreter that would run under a simple bytecode machine. Implement that bytecode and you could run Pascal on virtually anything. Back in 1970, this was a pretty useful feature.
Apparently it's been around REALLY long! And it was the official language for SA secondary schools till 2002.
Also sysadmins are unlikely to support platforms in which they cannot assert their dominance.
Also, I wonder if you are being a bit harsh about us being "extremely slow" to adapt to new trends, but that's just personal experience -maybe I've been lucky.
I've worked with vendors and clients from Europe and UK, and we seem to be able to keep up fine with them. I also know SA programmers who are doing fine in Australia. There's a lot of legacy crap that needs looking after, but that's a problem all over the world.
The Evil Empire never stops. The next time you hear someone blather on about the Gates Foundation, tell them about this story.