199 lines
9.7 KiB
HTML
199 lines
9.7 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html>
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Unlocking the Dutch educational system</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<p id="category"><a href="/work.html">Campaigns</a></p>
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<h1>Unlocking the Dutch educational system</h1>
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<div id="introduction">
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<p>We want to enable all citizens to have free access to education and all other
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public institutions, both online and offline. We wish to achieve this by
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pushing for a mandatory use of <a href="/activities/os/os.html">Open
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Standards</a> and guaranteed platform-independent access to all materials
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required in the public educational system. This allows students and parents to
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use Free Software, enabling them to tap into their potential for personal
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growth and development, without being made dependent of a company. </p>
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</div>
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<h2>What do we want to achieve?</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>pursue the goals of the (unfortunately) discontinued action plan
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"Netherlands Open in Connection" by making the use of Open Standards
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truly mandatory for all institutions in the (semi-)public sector; </li>
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<li>make vendor-independent access to all IT services, school materials
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and necessary information a requirement for all publicly-funded
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(educational) institutions; </li>
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<li>promote innovative education in IT skills by broadening the
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educational program with vendor-independent knowledge, insights, and
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skill sets; </li>
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<li> avoid vendor lock-ins, monopoly abuse, and anti-competitive
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practices which take away civilians' freedom of choice within the entire
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public sector, primarily the educational system;</li>
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<li>avoid the forced acceptance of license agreements with commercial
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companies in order to be allowed to take part of the educational system
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and the rest of the public sector. </li>
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</ul>
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<p>In the Netherlands, students have been locked out of school computers, learning
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accessories, lesson materials, and required data for years due to the use of
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proprietary software. They are forced to purchase proprietary software just to
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perform the most basic tasks; such as handing in their assignments, receiving
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objectives, cooperating on projects, and passing exams. Many schools and
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especially universities oblige students to use or even own computers with
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non-free operating systems without any clear reasons for doing so. Moreover,
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this situation could become much worse now that 'laptop schools' and 'tablet
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schools' are on the rise, which, combined with compulsory education - of which
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the minimal age might be increased to 21 years - will not only make
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it hard to use Free Software in the educational system, but it would even
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make it illegal not to use proprietary software instead.</p>
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<p>The former minister of Education declared, in response to questions from
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Parliament, that she considered long-term vendor lock-in to be acceptable.
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Thereby she rejected the ambitious Dutch Open Standards policy framework and
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ignored the short-term and long-term consequences:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>the enforced purchase of proprietary computer technology just to be
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able to participate in public education is illegal and unconstitutional, as
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it takes away the right of civilians who do not accept the license
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agreements of non-free software to participate in the public educational
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system, which should be accessible for everybody without any obstacles or
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limitations;</li>
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<li>it limits educational institutions to offer only constrained,
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vendor-specific skill sets aimed at very few proprietary programs, rather
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than providing truly universal, independent theoretical knowledge;</li>
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<li>it reduces the innovative strength of the Dutch economy as the
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educational systems don't provide it with a sufficiently trained,
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technologically independent labour force;</li>
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<li>it forces Dutch companies, organizations, and governmental institutions
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to spend billions of euros each year on re-training personnel, doing
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unnecessary and enforced hardware upgrades, and paying unnecessary license
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fees.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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In the spring of 2012, after the cabinet crisis, the campaign went on hiatus,
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as obviously no new policies could be formed at that time.</p>
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<p>
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Early 2013 the campaign was revived after yet another letter was sent to the
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Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science; this time to new minister Jet
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Bussemaker. Her response was far more useful than the one of her predecessor,
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and has brought us closest to our ultimate target so far. In her <a
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href="https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/nds-tk-2013D18567.html">response</a>
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to questions from Parliament, she made the following clear statement: "All
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Dutch civilians have the right to take part in the Dutch educational system
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without limitations. This is also the case for Free Software users. No
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exception must be made for them." </p>
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<p>
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In reality, this promise is seldom lived up to. Although this campaign was at
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first initiated because of the many problems around the notorious online
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learning environment Magister, and the most recent campaign was yet again
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brought to life because of this, the problems are sadly much larger than only
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that. Nearly three quarters of the high schools in the Netherlands use
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Magister, a Silverlight program which is obviously completely incompatible with
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Free Software, but aside from that, there are huge problems concerning open
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document standards, such as ODF and PDF. Despite the fact that Mrs. Bussemaker
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literally said that schools are obligated to accept both formats, this is
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rarely the case anywhere. Students are very regularly forced to save their
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documents as DOC files, and usually face point deduction in case the lay-out
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proves to be problematic with the non-free office software installed on the
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school computers (which is unavoidable with closed standards).
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</p>
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<p>
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Moreover, it is impossible to follow any education at any Dutch university
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without being forced to use non-free operating systems and other non-free
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software, and thereby accepting the associated license agreements. Many courses
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even have owning a laptop with Microsoft Windows as an implicit admission
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requirement. Despite the fact that the current minister of Education
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"acknowledges the limitations in the license agreements of non-free software",
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educational institutions rarely, if ever, act upon that.
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</p>
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<h2>Background</h2>
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<p>Using proprietary technologies for public services is a deliberate choice for
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long-term vendor lock-in and forced contract acceptance. This should be
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prevented at all times; especially in education and the public sector at large.
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The FSFE wants to push the mandatory use of Open Standards and platform
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independence in the entire public sector; not just within Dutch legislation,
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but throughout all of Europe. The Dutch Parliament has been advocating the
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mandatory use of Open Standards for more than a decade; ever since the <a
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href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motie-Vendrik">resolution of Kees
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Vendrik</a> in 2002. This led to an ambitious and internationally acclaimed
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policy framework in 2007. Sadly, this achievement was hampered by the previous
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minister of Education. She refused to implement the policies, and because of
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that, schools continued to use proprietary technology and closed standards
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nearly exclusively. The result was that their students remained to be forced to
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use proprietary software of specific vendors and to accept the accompanying
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license agreements against their will.
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The response of the current minister of Education promises to be a lot more
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hopeful though. Even though there are many things left to do, her statements at
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least made clear that she agrees that the current situation is not what we
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should wish for at all. Using those claims, public educational institutions
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might finally understand that public education can hardly be called "public"
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when only the users of non-free software are accepted and welcomed.</p>
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<p>This campaign aims to bring about new and sturdier legislation which obligates
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the use of Open Standards and platform independence, and especially maintains
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it. That always remained to be the biggest problem: we do have the basic
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legislation, but nobody seems to care about actually enforcing it. The public
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educational system exists for everybody; not just for those who have no
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problems with using proprietary software.</p>
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<h2>How can I contribute?</h2>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-nl">Subscribe
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to the discussion list!</a></li>
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<li>Running this campaign in the long run, will cost money. A <a
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href="https://my.fsfe.org/donate">financial contribution</a> will always be
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apreciated.</li>
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<li>Stand up for your civil rights: refuse to use proprietary software,
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whatever the school or university might say. They may never force you to
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use it.</li>
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<li> Write about your experiences. Politicians and journalists are better
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listeners than many people might expect. The more of us tell them that the
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current situation is problematic, the greater the chance that they will
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(quickly) take action.</li>
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<li>Spread the word, try to convince others, and especially hold on to your
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ideals; no matter what happens.</li>
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</ul>
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<related-feed tag="nledu"/>
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<section id="contact">
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<h2>Contact</h2>
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<p>Kevin Keijzer</p>
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<p><a href="mailto:nledu@lists.fsfe.org">nledu@lists.fsfe.org</a></p>
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<p>Hashtag #nledu</p>
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</section>
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</body>
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</html>
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