At a recent workshop on ICT policy for the civil society held at Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) presented a draft of a programme that seeks to assist teachers and students to utilize open source software with the aim of enhancing educational quality in the Philippines.

Titled the “Free and Open Source Software in Education” (FINE) strategy, it is aligned with similar CICT programmes, including iSchools and eSwela, which are aimed at raising the capacity public school teachers and students to utilize ICT.

A number of projects have been developed as part of the FINE strategy, including the “Open Content in Education Initiative”, which will identify and utilize freely available content, to produce educational multimedia content. Another project, the “eQuality programme”, provides training in open source software to students from state colleges and universities.

The FINE strategy will also involve the distribution of a “Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) CD Kit” that contains open source alternatives to proprietary applications, such as Blender (3D modeling software), Firefox, OpenOffice, NVU Web Authoring, and Scribus DTP.

Further information:

• INQ7.net article “CICT drafts educational open source strategy”

http://technology.inq7.net/infotech/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=18508

Related information and articles:

• Information about Free and Open Source Software

http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1531

• UNESCO workshop in Nepal supports access to information in local language

http://www2.unescobkk.org/education/ict/v2_2/detail.asp?id=28890

Related stories from the Philippines:

• ICT Education in Cebu

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2006/10/19/bus/ng.ict.education.in.cebu.html