VISCED

The Open High School System (OHSS) Act establishing the OHSS as part of the Philippine Department of Education alternative secondary education programme was approved on 1st of June 2012. The OHSS will encourage self-learning and will start piloting alternative quality education through print, TV, radio, Internet, teleconferencing, multimedia and computer. The bill covers all youth and adults who have finished elementary education and all other who qualify for high school education. It will adopt the National Secondary Education Curriculum.

This month's eSchool News leads with a feature article about the worries educators have concerning the fast pace of growth of virtual schools in the US. Highlighting the fact that regulation is finding it difficult to keep up with the virtual school boom, this article tackles the age-old debate as to whether online learning is as good as face-to-face teaching.The article focuses in part on Colorado where a row has broken out provoked by the significant growth of online schools in this state. Read more online.

It's good to see that Laura Dekkers, the 16 year old who recently sailed single-handedly around the world onboard her yacht Guppy, suceeded in a dream that has inspired her since she first set off sailing at the tender age of 5. Her success raises some questions though about the extent to which educational authorities can enforce their decisions when it comes to compulsory education.When Laura and her parents first made their plans known in 2009 when Laura was 13, the Dutch authorities strongly opposed them on the grounds that she would be neglecting her education. Eventually she was allowed to go ahead on the condition that she followed regular online tuition and kept up with her school work. Laura enrolled in the Wereldschool which provides teaching programmes for Dutch-speaking children who stay abroad with their parents.

The Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE) is located in the quiet suburb of Coorparoo, not far from the legendary Gabba cricket ground.  When Barry Phillips of Sero recently visited, he was welcomed to the BSDE by the Executive Principal and introduced to two visitors on a fact finding mission from the Department of Education of the Chinese province of Jiangsu. BSDE is an Education Queensland (the educational arm of the Queensland Government) distance education school which supports students from prep to Year 12 and which also includes adults in its Year 10-12 cohort.