Open Source Software can be used by municipalities with a small budget to reduce the expense on schools, according to a case study about migrating to OSS in Finnish secondary school.
The Kasavuoren secondary school in Kauniainen, a municipality near Helsinki, started the migration to open source software in 2007. As a replace of proprietary software.
The migration goals
The Kasavuoren school wants to create a new IT system allow changes and provide flexibility, which it can’t create with the proprietary software. So it started to use FOSS solutions.
The school argues that this type of software gives students and teachers meaningful tools that enrich learning and create new opportunities for learning.
Besides the main purpose of enriching the education process, The Kauniainen municipality tried the free and open source software as a solution to reduce the cost of IT services in their budget.
Implementation
The school, with about 330 students and 40 teachers, used Linux and other free and open source applications everywhere, on PC workstations, on laptops, and for running terminals.
Results
As using the free and open source software the school has reduced the expense of IT services by 37% in the first year. It has saved 100 thousand euros of expenses on PCs and Laptops.
After three years of using FOSS at Kasavuoren School, the Kauniainen municipality saw that the secondary school didn't need the IT services fund any more. So they removed the fund from their budget.
Also, the school has created a completely new model involving IT service providers and researchers. And it said that their IT system became more responsive.
In 2010, the secondary school migration to FOSS model, used by Finnish ministry of education at another school to improve the way of using technology in the daily life of students and to reduce the cost of IT services at schools.