I’m trying to get more information, but this story got my attention this morning.
I quote from the press release:
A program to train over 400 thousand people in open source software – as part of Mission Science – will start on Monday, June 12 in Venezuela. This training program will be carried out by the National Center of Information Technologies (CNTI, Spanish acronym). CNTI’s President, Jorge Berrizbeitia, explained that the first goal is to train the population that does not know anything about this field.
The registration process will be carried out in the 330 information offices distributed all around the country.
These free courses will last 24 hours. They will be completed according to the needs of each community. They include hardware and software fundamentals, their use and utilities, and the importance of information and communication technologies for communities.
Berrizbieta pointed out that 860 people will participate as teachers in these courses.
The CNTI’s head stated that the second stage of this program will train over 300 thousand reservists on this technology-information matter. He also added that the CNTI plans to open other 230 information offices. This institution also will provide mobile information offices that will be able to reach low-income communities of difficult access.
I’ve never come across any government doing this on a scale that is comparable. Training 400,000 people in the concepts and use of opensource software. With over 800 teachers. On a national scale. Specifically targeting low-income communities with poor access.
I have not looked at the curriculum or syllabus; I am not aware of how this is being funded; and it is difficult for me to tell how effective one day’s training will be.
But I applaud the move. I will definitely be tracking how they are doing. If anyone else is interested, please let me know via a comment.
Does anyone know of any other country where this is being attempted on such a scale?
Or, for that matter, any other organisation, public or private?
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24 hours sounds more like 2 or 3 days, or am I mistaken?
You’re right. I’ve re-read what I have found out so far, and it looks like 24 hours worth of training, which may well be three or four days. Thanks for the comment. I will keep you posted.
JP, thanks for this coverage. (+1 person interested in updates on the story; will read the RSS).
Missed your Copenhagen talk, but was concentrated in a 1-on-1 conversation. Your great blog – yay quantity, yay quality – makes up for part of it. Thanks.
Olle, thanks for the comments. Sorry to have missed you at reboot. Glad you like the blog. I will keep you informed via your RSS reader….
gnuLinEx — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinEx — is run by the regional government of Extremadura, Spain, and installed in a lot of schools and local Internet centers. I don’t see a user count though.