Thursday, May 06, 2010

SchoolTool Development Grant Awards

The SchoolTool Project is happy to announce the recipients of in-kind software development grants worth a total of EUR 50,000 to facilitate the deployment of SchoolTool’s free and open source administrative systems in schools in the developing world.

The grants will fund customization of SchoolTool to meet the specific requirements of the countries involved for integration with existing data systems, government report generation, and other local needs. All these improvements, and SchoolTool itself, will be available at no cost to all schools in these countries and around the world. In several cases local vendors, non-governmental organizations and government agencies are collaborating with schools to support future scale-up of these pilot projects.

This grant is funded by Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux, Canonical Ltd., and Thawte, as part of his ongoing sponsorship of SchoolTool.

Grant Recipients:

  • 25,000 EUR: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Open Institute.
    The Ministry and the Open Institute, a local NGO, will pilot a Khmer language version of SchoolTool at 25 high schools in October 2010 with the goal of full deployment to all high schools in October 2011.
  • 7,500 EUR: National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration NIEPA), Ondo, Nigeria.
    NIEPA is a national center for training in education management in Nigeria.
  • 7,500 EUR: Mpelembe Secondary School, Kitwe, Zambia.
    Mpelembe is the leading technical school in Zambia and an active participant in the Enhancing the Visual and Presentation of Educational Content project of the International Institute for Communication and Development.
  • 5,000 EUR: Sulaimon Shado Schools, Lagos, Nigeria.
  • 5,000 EUR: Centro Escolar Cantón El Calvario, Centro Escolar Cantón La Soledad, and Escuela Santaneca de Enseñanza Especializada, El Salvador.

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