The Polish Foundation on Open and Free Software (Fwioo) is establishing a team of ten experts to help develop courses on free and open source software, meant to be used in secondary schools as well as in technical schools.

Fwioo intends to get the courses approved by the ministry of Education.

The advocacy group in the past few weeks got together teachers from schools and universities, representing three provinces (voivodeship): Wielkopolskie, Lubuskie and Zachodniopomorskie. These teachers will be working together with university experts.

The group will start building several sets of courses. Fwioo hopes to offer secondary schools a set of practical courses on this type of software, combining it with robotics and other innovative types of IT. "This course will be offered in after-school hours", explains Ywonne Janicka, one of the representatives of Fwioo involved in the education project.

According to her, the classes will be given in schools in at least the three provinces. "Here about hundred schools and some 1100 students will participate."

The project titled Strategia Wolnych i Otwartych Implementacji" (SWOI, Strategy for the Implementation of Free and Open Source Software), is one of Fwioo's biggest, with a tentative budget of five million Polish zloty (about 1.2 million Euro). The project is co-financed by the European Union's Social Fund.

More information:

Fwioo call for experts (in Polish)

Fwioo call for teacher (in Polish)

Fwioo