Italian CS Teacher Builds Free Open-Source School Register to End Vendor Lock-In

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An Italian computer science teacher has developed il_registro, a free and open-source electronic class register, to challenge the dominance of costly proprietary software in Italian public schools. Italian law requires all schools to use a certified digital platform for attendance, grades, and communications, a market currently controlled by a handful of private vendors funded by taxpayer money. The developer built the full-stack, self-hostable system using Go, Vue 3, Kotlin, and Swift, incorporating features such as real-time notifications, digital signatures compliant with eIDAS, and integrations with national identity systems like SPID and CIE. The platform also includes accessibility tools meeting WCAG 2.2 AA standards, native mobile apps for students, parents, teachers, and administrative staff, and supports 11 languages. A live demo with sample accounts for all school roles is publicly available, and the project aims to give public institutions transparent, verifiable, and high-performance tools free from commercial lock-in.

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