Revising the computer curriculum of schools – the crucial need of the hour
-Bal Krishna Bal
Background
With the gradual influence of the Free Open Source Software (FOSS) movement worldwide, Nepal also cannot remain an exception. In the recent years, several awareness campaigns have been conducted for promoting FOSS in Nepal and let it be in a small proportion but FOSS has had made some implications or at least forced people to think on certain issues in the Policy Level. This applies to the debate on the need of the hour to revise the computer curriculum in schools, which has been going on for quite sometime now. Need to note that the computer curriculum in schools (grades IX and X), managed by the Curriculum Development Center (CDC), under the Ministry of Education, Nepal Government has been predominantly following the Microsoft based Operating System(OS) and applications. Given below is a Fragment of the prevailing computer curriculum in schools (grade IX and X)
Operating systems
. Disk Operating System (DOS)
. Windows
Programming
. QBASIC
Database Management
. Microsoft Access
While the structure of the curriculum could have been alright some one and half decades back when the technology did not have options at least in the context of Nepal, it undoubtedly requires modifications in the current context. From a policy making perspective too, the question is how ethical would it be to preach particular technologies when one is not able to afford for genuine and licensed versions of the technology. Should we motivate our children to use pirated software? From a practical perspective too, should not it be our responsibility to make our teaching and learning effective, updated and hence up to the mark? If this is the case, we are but obliged to include the latest technologies in our curriculum rather than continue feeding the same curriculum that the older generations were taught. There could be issues of practical questions in terms of implementation, lets say for example, the teachers, having been very much used to the old materials in the curriculum, may not be knowledgeable and handy to the latest technologies so as to teach the students. The other point could be that before implementing the new technologies as part of the curriculum, the teachers country wide would need to be oriented and this takes time. These are valid questions but how long should we keep teaching our students and children obsolete material just to seek compatibility with the current settings?
The larger problem
With the proactiveness of a few institutions of Nepal like Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), Help Nepal Network (HeNN), Kathmandu University (KU), FOSS Nepal and others, Internet Communication Technologies (ICT) labs have been set up in about 60 different rural and/or semi-urban sites of Nepal. Most of the sites are public government or community managed schools and the ICT labs have been developed following the latest and cost-effective Linux Server Terminal Project (LTSP) technology. Under the technology, a lab with four to five computers can be effectively managed in about just a 100,000 Nepali rupees. This is possible because diskless computers (without hard disks) and having lower configurations can be networked to a relatively robust computer furnished with Linux as the operating system. Since the setup avails all the necessary applications for an ordinary Desktop user and if desired can also be tuned with localized educational applications in Nepali, the locals from the rural sites have been greatly benefitted. In addition to owning an optimum cost internet enabled computer lab, the users from these locations would be using the latest Free Open Source Software and hence clearly be enjoying the benefits that the proprietary counterpart is not in a position to offer.
However, to the great dismay of the locals from these sites, they have not been able to use the lab for their normal teaching and learning process just because the Microsoft based applications and Operating System that are prescribed in the current curriculum are not available in the computers of the lab setup. Similar is the plight of some of the other private and public schools in the capital and other neighboring cities. Although, they have been teaching the latest FOSS technologies to the grades lower than IX, in the final two grades, IX and X, the schools have been forced to teach obsolete material. To add misery, they have been forced to install pirated and non-genuine software in their labs just to meet the criteria set by the current curriculum.
Possible solution
A possible solution to the above problem could be making the curriculum as vendor neutral as possible. This would mean developing a task-oriented curriculum rather than an application-based curriculum. Wherever we have MS Word, for example, we could replace by Word Processing. Similarly, MS Excel could be rephrased as Spread sheet operations. This opens options for people to go for any of the applications meeting the objectives of the tasks irrespective of the need to choose a particular vendor. Given below is the fragment of the proposed structure of the new curriculum.
Operating system
. File Management Operations
Programming
. Designing and understanding basic algorithms
. Programming Fundamentals
Office tasks
. Word processing
. Spread sheet operations
. Developing presentations
How bumpy is the road?
As revealed by the Curriculum Development Center (CDC), which is the responsible body for any amendments or changes in the curriculum of schools, the whole amendment process is quite a lengthy process which involves suggestions taking, in-depth discussion with subject committee board members and many other procedural formalities. To make matters worse, the curriculum review does not happen frequently and regularly. This makes it a rather complex problem which requires the joint efforts and co-ordination of all the stakeholders – in this case, the schools, Policy Makers, institutions like MPP, HeNN, FOSS Nepal, KU and others. The efforts of these stakeholders should be primarily directed in producing a draft of the proposed curriculum that can effectively address the given problems at the same time keeping in mind the possible social and technical constraints that could come on the way of making and implementing Policies with long term implications. The draft should be thoroughly discussed among the concerned stakeholders and passed to the CDC. The stakeholders should be working hand in hand with the CDC providing their relevant expertise and advice. At a time, when we are optimistically looking forward to drafting a new constitution of the entire country, the problem does not seem to be intractable. However, the road is obviously not smooth if not bumpy.
Note: This write-up has been developed on the basis of the presentation made by the author in the Meeting of Policy Makers and Stakeholders on “Computer Curriculum in Schools” at Yalamaya Kendra, Lalitpur, PatanDhoka on September 24, 2008. The author is a Project Manager at Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, Lalitpur, PatanDhoka and also a Visiting Faculty to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Kavre.
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Computer Curriculum 
