VietNamNet Bridge – As of 2010, education and training centres in Vietnam will have to use open-source software to cut cost and avoid software copyright infringement, according to a draft circular from the Education and Training Ministry (MoET).

MoET has made public its draft circular on open-source use in education and training centres for public comment until December 31, 2009.

According to the draft, all levels from general schools to universities as well as educational agencies will be encouraged to use open-source software to save copyright fees and curb software copyright infringement.

The draft points out four key open-source software for use: Open Office, Unikey, Firefox and Thunderbird.

It also names 18 open-source software people are encouraged to use, including operating systems, study management software, library management software, information portals, forum creating software, sound management software, photo software and others.

Quach Tuan Ngoc, the chief of the MoET’s IT Application Department, said that this circular will be issued in January 2010.

Ngoc said that the MoET is building an online open-source software “warehouse” on its two websites moet.gov.vn and edu.net.vn to help education and training centres. The two websites will also be sources for guidance documents and experience in using open-source software.

The Ministry plans to amend its IT curricular, adding open-source software teaching material to school.

Encouraging or forcing to use?

There is an unclear point in the draft: the use of four open-source software (Open Office, Unikey, Firefox and Thunderbird) in the education and training sector is encouraged or compulsory?

Ngoc said their use is “almost compulsory”. He said, however, that MoET doesn’t aim to completely replace everything with open source.

The change from close-source to open-source software will be applied flexibly but the goal is having 80-90 percent of computers in the education sector installed with open-source software, Ngoc added.

He said that it is quite easy to apply open-source software, especially Open Office because there are instruction documents in Vietnamese.

Ngoc said that the biggest hindrance for using open-source software is awareness and the hesitation to change at education and training centres. 

VietNamNet/ICTNews 

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