60 Thousand Russian Teachers Will Learn Linux by the End of 2009

I’ve already mentioned here a few times the attention that Russian authorities pay to open-source software. In fact, here reliance on commercial software in all the fields of life is considered something of a national vulnerability where one non-local company can easily influence the future of the entire nation where everyone - from a school child to a mayor of a city - uses Microsoft products for everyday tasks.

So various initiatives emerge in Russia that are all intended to promote open-source software that is considered to be more friendly to the national interests of the country. One of such initiatives is transition of Russian schools from Microsoft products (that are often pirated and could thus easily become a reason for huge problems for teachers) to open-source products, including Linux and Open Office.

As part of the initiative, Russian schools have already received CDs with Linux and other open-source tools distribution kits so that such solutions could be installed even in the schools with no broadband internet access. But of course such a large-scale deployment is not that easy to carry out without help of qualified professionals who can make it possible.

So now the progress seems to be here as the ministry of education has initiated a tender for training teachers so that they could both install and use open-source software and pass their knowledge to their pupils. The amount allocated for the purpose is about $4 million and it covers training of teachers and tutors who will be able to help such teachers should problems arise in the future.

The winning company will be responsible for organizing full-time training in schools and also distant training for teachers in smaller towns and villages of the country. All the teachers will also have to pass tests to prove their knowledge of Linux and other solutions covered by the training program. The plan is that 60 thousand Russian teachers will be able to complete the training and testing procedure by the end of 2009 which means that as soon as next year all the schools in Russia will be able to switch to open-source software which definitely should be appreciated by the open-source community.

Unfortunately the reality rarely matches the plans in this country so I’d expect some peculiar situations on the road and numerous problems in trying to teach a middle-aged teacher who has only recently learned how to paste a picture in a Word document to actually install any of the Linux distributives. But anyway this is definitely official support of open-source ideals on a very large scale that deserves a mention.

Via (in Russian), photo credit