Collaborative effort brings computers to Goa schools

The Goa Schools Computers Project has shown how individual citizens with enthusiasm and perseverance can harness Non-Resident Indian largesse to bring computers and computer education to Indian schools. Frederick Noronha traces the evolution of this project and dissects the issues involved

Once-used computers coming in by the containerful, teachers crossing the oceans to learn more about the educational system in another continent, and voluntary initiatives that invest in the future... all this and more is possible, as the Goa Schools Computers Project (GSCP) has shown.

With all the obstacles removed, permissions obtained and procedures streamlined, GSCP is now awaiting the latest consignment of 400 donated computers, which they hope to install in 60 additional schools of the verdant state of Goa. But it’s not exactly been easy reaching this point.

It all started way back in 1995, when a few local youth dreamt of the possibility of citizens’ initiatives to promote computer education. Couldn’t local professionals help cash-strapped schools in Goa set up their computer labs, they postulated.

Noble thought indeed, but it would have all remained in the realm of fantasy, had it not been for efforts to involve expatriate Goans from all over the world, who had the funds, enthusiasm and energies to support such a project. The Internet, of course, was the glue that kept everyone bonded, in more ways than one. Using the ‘GoaNet’ network (www.goacom.com/goanet) a mailing list which links a few thousand Goans worldwide Goans in North America undertook a drive to raise money for a few schools in Goa.

“Since that first initiative [in 1995-96], several thousands of dollars have been raised in various parts of the world (primarily the US, Canada, UAE and the UK) to serve this purpose,” says the GSCP today.

GSCP is attempting to help all secondary schools in the state obtain computers by the year 2003, with the support of the government, industry, and the community. The project is clear about its goals: “To substantially improve the level of computer technology used in Goan schools and to work in partnership with the Goa government to make Goa the first state in the country to incorporate computer technology into the secondary curriculum in 100 percent of schools.”

The project aims to equip every school with a computer lab consisting of at least eight networked PCs. A combination of providing funding for infrastructure development for labs; purchasing new computers; importing used equipment; sourcing domestic used PCs; local assembly; and, refurbishing of used equipment, is seen as the way to achieve this goal.

“The project relies on teamwork and networking among volunteers using the Internet. Over the past four years, over US$30,000 has been raised in communities across the world for this purpose,” according to the project proponents. This figure of funds collected would be higher now. And, as word gets around of what is possible, the idea is getting planted even more firmly, and this model could well be used to equip schools in other states of the country with computers.

The project has driven home the fact that computer education is important for schools, and that it is feasible despite limited funding available. Inspired by what was proved possible, some schools in the state have gone into overdrive to raise funds of their own, in order to set up their computer labs independently.

Tax-free philanthropy

The Central government has clarified that once-used computers will be importable duty-free even by non-government schools. In Goa, the bulk of students study in non-government (but government-funded) private schools. Most of these schools are non-elitist in nature. Of the 354 secondary schools (first to tenth standards) in Goa, 74 are government-run schools (State or Central Board) schools and the rest are managed by private trusts or the Church (Archdiocese of Goa).

Contributors from the US making a donation to the project get a tax write-off via Goa Sudharop, a US registered 501c3 charity. Through Goa Sudharop (www.goasudharop.org/gscp), expats also have the option of funding particular schools of their choice mostly from their ancestral villages, since village ties are very strong in Goa. Another website, computersforindia.org, is an umbrella site for anyone wishing to ship computers to Indian schools with updates on the modalities, the legalities, the economics, and so on.

“You could start an initiative to help your old school or your village school, by contacting other people from your village or other ex-students from your school.... The cost of a computer lab with all new-equipment is about $5,000,” suggests the GSCP. In the case of once-used computers, the shipping cost is $75 per PC.

Diverse donors

Some of the GSCP project proponents have an unusual background.Dave Futers, a Briton who visited Goa many times on holiday, is an electronics engineer, who got to know local schoolteacher Jude Miranda. Futers supported the computerisation efforts of St Francis Xavier’s Girls School in Mapusa.

Francisco Alves, while a Ph.D. student at Georgetown University in Washington DC, led a fund-raising effort to sponsor his alma mater, Saviour of the World, Loutolim. Noel Almeida, a resident of Boston, sponsored Immaculate Heart School, Goa Velha. Tim DeMello, a resident of Toronto, led a fund-raising effort to sponsor St. Michael’s School, Vagathor. Jim and Jackie, a tourist-couple from the UK provided Infant Jesus, Velsao, with five PCs. Agnelo Gomes, resident of Philadelphia, sponsored his old school Popular High School, Margao.

McDonald’s Corporation donated the first large shipment to the project 18 PCs, mostly higher-end 486s. Metrowerks, a Texas-based software firm, provided CodeWarrior educational programming software for high school and college students in Goa. Red Hat India has offered free GNU/Linux software and training to the schools in Goa.

Marlon Menezes, a Silicon Valley Goan, and founder of the first Goan website of its kind (now called www.goacom.com) has also been coordinating the project with Chicago-based Daryl Martyris, currently on an extended sojourn in Goa. World Bank operations officer Emmanuel D’Silva (Washington DC) was instrumental in helping several schools get computer labs.

Once the GSCP obtained tax-exemption status in the US it meant that many more would be willing to offer donations to it, because apart from the tax-break they would enjoy, it was also seen as an indication of the seriousness of the project proponents.

“Romulus Pereira fired some 20 or more rapid-fire questions about our plans. Then he went ahead and wrote out a fat cheque,” says Martyris. Pereira is a 35-year-old Goan expat and CEO of the Santa Clara networking-equipment maker Riverstone Networks that went public in the year 2000 and, despite a recessionary market, saw its stock go up by 70 percent as revenue doubled.

Making teachers effective

GSCP also wants to promote initiatives that would help teachers at the school-level impart computer training to students more effectively. It has organised exchange visits of school-level educators between Goa and the UK, though in small numbers due to the high costs involved. Foreign tourists like Dave Futers of the UK, who believe in the importance of computer education, have deeply supported such ventures.

In this connection, John Leary and Mathew Brown, both from Chicago, visited Mumbai, Goa and Ahmedabad recently.

Leary, who is director of World History Education, has collaborated with schools in Tanzania, Africa, experimenting with using computers for education. “Getting computers into schools is only the first step. What is really important is to get teachers to learn how to use them,” says he. To this end, and in an attempt to share skills, they held teacher-training workshops in the western Indian states of Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat under the auspices of the Computers for India Coalition, of which GSCP is a part.

Brown, currently finishing his doctorate at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, is a former teacher too. “I left teaching when it became clear that many schools in the US invest large sums of money in technology, without spending enough time on how to use the technology,” explains Brown. His Ph.D. in educational technology looks at the interaction between computer science, education and psychology. “We try to design cutting-edge applications for schools,” he says.

No stopping this

GSCP is not content with merely putting computers in schools. It would like to see these computers used outside school hours by villagers for e-mail and for accessing useful information on the Internet. Since Goa has a highly literate population and English is widely known, this objective can definitely be met.

Since the first consignment of 97 PCs arrived in the year 2000 and found their way into 16 schools, the project has come a long way. A container of 400 PCs for 60 more schools is expected shortly and there are plans to hold an online fund raiser raffle and arrange for two more consignments of 400 PCs each later this year.

Some of the key protagonists of the project, like Daryl Martyris, are keen not to stop with Goa. This young engineer-turned-journo-turned-management-consultant recently quit a job at PriceWaterHouseCoopers to do something he enjoys more (he plans to move to studying international development back in the US). Martyris who studied in Pune and Mumbai, besides having lived in Calcutta, has also been pushing plans to launch a Computers for India Coalition, mainly among expat NRI communities overseas.

Indeed, now that most of the bureaucratic bottlenecks have been eliminated and the procedures streamlined, the GSCP model could well be duplicated in other states and help bring about a revolution in computer education throughout the country.

India Computes! is presented by Frederick Noronha, a freelance journalist based in Goa. He is the co-founder of BytesForAll, a voluntary, unfunded venture focusing on how IT and the Internet can benefit the common man, particularly in South Asia. You can check out the website at www.bytesforall.org

The GSCP methodology

1. Create local organisation
2. Conduct survey to determine extent of IT penetration in schools
3. Enter into arrangement with State education department to ensure duty waiver
4. Identify schools
5. Help schools build infrastructure
6. Arrange teacher training and curriculum development
7. Source and ship computers
8. Make provision for maintenance of equipment
9. Begin community empowerment phase by opening facility to the village people after-hours, and provide useful applications

Linux to debut in Goa classrooms
After struggling for years to get access to non-pirated software to run their computer labs, schools in Goa recently hit a bonanza. Red Hat India, part of a prominent global corporation dealing in open-source software based on the Linux operating system, has come up with an innovative plan under which schools will get access not only to all the software they need but also to free training for teachers and volunteers.

Red Hat India training manager Shankar Iyer said, “In this process, Red Hat and an NGO (Goa Schools Computers Project) have come together for a social cause.”

Currently, a project of this type is unique for India, where schools have been struggling with unaffordable software prices. “Red Hat is willing to extend it across the country (without any financial implications for the schools),” said Iyer.

“The concept of open source and its advantages of having the source code in hand, will be of great advantage for children. Schools and parents will not be burdened with high investments, at regular intervals. Schools also need not keep spending on upgrading machines on a regular basis,” he contended.

“This is a very good initiative,” commented Dr Gurunandan Bhat, till recently head of Goa University’s computer science department. “The spread of Linux depends on how quickly we take it across to schools,” he added.

Goa-based GSCP representative Anit Saxena admits that the job ahead poses some daunting tasks, but says efforts are on to make it work. “Getting things done in Goa can take time,” he says, alluding to the unhurried pace that this holiday-state is reputed for.

At some schools in Goa like the elite Sharada Mandir outside state-capital Panaji piracy-free Linux software has already been installed in the school lab. “We are keen to employ Linux solutions too,” says Ashwin Naik, a UK-educated engineer and management expert, whose family-run trust runs the Adarsh Vidyalaya School in the Goan town of Margao.

BytesForAllICTs AND DEVELOPMENT
The sixth bi-annual ‘ICTs and Development conference’ will bring together leading figures in the field, from May 29-31, 2002 in Bangalore. It will focus on the new opportunities, new perspectives and new challenges arising from the growth of ICT applications in Third World countries. Papers from researchers, analysts and practitioners are to focus on key issues in ICTs and development; particularly relating to 2002 conference sub-themes (participation in global economic activity; local governance and socio-economic development; emergence of new organisational types). Further details can be had from the conference chairs: S Krishna (skrishna@iimb.ernet.in), Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Shirin Madon (s.madon@lse.ac.uk), London School of Economics, UK.

CENTRE FOR ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE
The Centre for Electronic Governance at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, is the Institutional Guide for the E-Government content on the portal. The E-Government topic page disseminates information on the use of Information and Communicat-ion Technology (ICT) for improved governance.

The E-Government topic page already features around 370 resource items including e-government programs and projects, publications and multimedia, events and discussion forum, tools, organisations, networks and people, documents, reports, data and statistics. It also gives access to a database of more than 50 e-government projects across the globe.

You can not only visit the e-government page, but also participate in the knowledge sharing process by clicking on ‘Add Content’. Look up www.developmentgateway.org/node/130619/

AWARD FOR INDIAN
Dr Venkataraman Balaji, the head/Principal Scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India, has received the World Technology Award 2001 in the category of education, in recognition of work done in the Pondicherry project on taking the benefits of IT to fishing communities. Check out www.wtn.net/ AwardsSite2/education.wtn. The World Technology Award for Education considers those using emerging technologies to help people learn more than possible before or more people to learn than possible before, and, often, to do so in innovative ways.

MAPS OF INDIA
Though you still cannot get door-to-door directions like you can for most of the US, the Maps of India website has a good collection of detailed maps of India. There are interactive maps for the road network and rail network, and also maps for tourists, historians, educationists, etc. There’s lots of useful information at the site including distance between places, highways, pin-code and STD-code data, all searchable. Visit www.mapsofindia.com

LINUX SUPPORT
DeepRoot Linux, a Bangalore-based company, is offering server appliances and Linux support. It’s slogan is “free software at its productive best”. This firm has also set up an Indian GNU/Linux software mirror. Check out www.deeproot.co.in for the DeepRoot Linux home page and www.kernel.org.in for the Indian GNU/Linux software mirror.

KANNADA COMPUTING
KGP is a voluntary organisation formed by computer professionals, literary persons and others, for standardisation and usage of the Indian language of Kannada on computers. Interested readers are invited to contact Dr U B Pavanaja, the Editor of Vishva Kannada at www.vishvakannada.com. Vishva Kannada claims to be the world’s first Internet magazine in Kannada.

SOUTHERN LITERATURE
Kannadasaahithya.com is a website that focuses primarily on Kannada literature and is supported by the University of Pennsylvania for archival purposes. Major Kannada writers like U R Ananthamurthy and Chandrashekhara Kambar have supported this website by providing exclusive rights to publish all their works. It is a not-for-profit venture, attempting to provide reference works for academic and general use, for those with an interest in Kannada literature.

THIS TIME, TAMIL
While on the subject of Indianising computing, those interested in this line of development, check out: www.tamillinux.org. As the site says, “Tamil becomes the first Indic language to have an operating system user interface. Quite a few console tools and most of kde is available in Tamil, and work is underway with Gnome.”

Attempts to make computers work with ‘desi’ tongues deserve all support. Someone once said: “Since culture is embedded in language to a significant degree, the ability to compute in one’s native language can give Indian culture a significant boost.”

IND-COMPUTING
Karunakar in Mumbai has an interesting set of bookmarks that suggest the way to go when it comes to Indianising computers. These are up at indlinux.sourceforge.net/bookmarks.html.

Keyur Shroff made a very interesting announcement recently: a Beta version of Linux localised for Hindi. It comes from the NSCT in Mumbai. “We have localised the graphical user interface (GUI) in a generic fashion for Indian language support. The system has been developed under the project name IndiX and is funded by Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, under their Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) programme. The system has been put in the public domain and you can download binaries as well as source files. Related documents are also available on the Net,” informs Shroff. To download the IndiX system, visit rohini.ncst.ernet.in/indix

ACCESS TO RESEARCH
CV Radhakrishnan wrote in recently seeking support for an initiative to provide unrestricted access to the published records of scientific research. An open letter in support of this initiative has been signed by more than 26,000 scientists from 170 countries. The Public Library of Science is a non-profit organisation of scientists committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature freely accessible to scientists and to the public around the world, for the benefit of scientific progress, education and the public good. The website is www.publiclibraryofscience.org