Thiruvananthapuram, 22 Feb

Kerala’s state-run KITE has added Tamil and Kannada content to GCompris, one of the world’s leading educational entertainment software programs. This marks a significant contribution to the global Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community.

KITE, the technology arm of Kerala’s General Education Department, developed the localised content for its Kalipetti (Play Box) ICT textbooks, used by students in Classes 1 to 4 under the Kerala state syllabus, according to a statement.

Previously, Indian language support in GCompris was largely limited to Sanskrit and Malayalam. “This initiative marks a significant expansion into other regional languages,” said KITE CEO K Anvar Sadath.

Although Kerala provides textbooks in Kannada and Tamil for students in border areas and linguistic minority schools, the absence of such content in the global GCompris repository had prompted KITE to develop its own localised solutions within the KITE GNU/Linux operating suite.

KITE subsequently prepared 1,544 GUI translations and voice-overs in Tamil and 1,582 in Kannada.

The contribution has been formally approved by the KDE Community, one of the world’s largest collectives of free software developers, and is now available across platforms, including the Google Play Store.

KITE is also leveraging GCompris’ new client-server model—which works effectively without an internet connection—to benefit children with special needs, the official added.

GCompris includes nearly 200 activities designed to help children up to ten years old develop skills in numeracy, literacy, science, and geography through play.