CH: Politicians demand more open source in education

A tender published on 2 September by a public school in the municipality of Jegenstorf in the canton of Bern drew the ire of the group of politicians. "Again and again, public tenders request Microsoft Windows. This is annoying, especially when it concerns purchases by schools, as national and international examples show Linux is a valid alternative", the group writes in a statement.

In its tender the school explicitly rules out IT solutions based on Apple or open source.

This discrimination surprises the politicians as ruling out alternatives is likely against the law, they say, referring to a recent decision by a federal administrative court over a government agency signing a software licence deal with Microsoft.

The group points out that the government of the canton Bern two years ago decided to increase the use of open source in education. The government explained its decision at the time, saying that knowledge of and experience with open source is necessary for students and teachers, introducing the public concepts of this type of software.

The Jegenstorf public tender is preventing school students to benefit from the diversity of open source and its educational and career benefits, says MP Edith Graf-Litscher of the Sozialdemokratisch Partei (SP), one of the members of the Parliamentary Group for Digital Sustainability.

Thomas Weibel, MP for the Grünliberale Partei (GLP) added: "In times when public administrations everywhere need to save money, I would expect they would seriously consider the procurement of low-cost and promising open source systems."

In their statement, the parliamentarians demand an end to the distortions of the IT market. "Around the world, millions are using open source in schools. See for example schools in Brazil, in Geneva and most recently in the Swiss municipality of Wynigen."

The Berner Zeiting quotes Heinz Rohrbach, Jegenstor council member responsible for education, who said he welcomes open source IT solution providers to ask questions. "Nothing has been decided yet."

More information:

Parliamentary Group for Digital Sustainability (in German or French)

Jegenstorf tender (registration required)

Inside IT news item (in German)

Computerworld news items (in German)

Swiss IT magazine news item (in German)

Berner Zeiting news item (in German)

Presentation on open source in schools in Geneva (in German, pdf)