ksta took to the streets, demanding foss be installed in computers in schools. “Teachers boycotted classes and said they would boycott examinations if the class x ‘it Practicals’ was held using the Microsoft package,” recounts V K Sasheedharan, then a ksta member. The government buckled under the pressure and finally accepted the demand to include foss in the it@school project.

Net users in the city and in Kerala are discovering and exploring the potential of free software. Chandrasekharan Nair, a Peyad-based planter, turned to cyber space to express his angst against what he perceived as farmer-unfriendly policies. Gradually, he also began to include tips on farming in general and rubber cultivation in particular.

T@SCHOOL project offers exclusively free software based support for primary education in kerala.This time,Director of Public instruction has decided to conduct SSLC(secondary school leaving certificate-the basic requirement for higher studies in INDIA) IT practical examination for this year from 27th February to 7th March 2008. It is first time , conducting IT practical examination for complete students in the free software – IT@School GNU/Linux. IT@School project and Pareekshabhavan has entrusted to conduct the examination for more than 4.7 lakh students throughout the schools of Kerala, Lakshadeep and Gulf countries. IT@school admins are preparing to apply for guiness as they have the largest number of student attending an exam based on exclusive free software based softwares:)

Kerala is all set to become the first state in the country to completely banish Microsoft and allow only GNU/Linux free software to be used in the mandatory IT test at the state SSLC examinations that half a million students will appear for from next week. Till last year, they could take the exam using either free software or the Microsoft platform. Not anymore.