WILL COOLS GIVE THE VIRTUAL LEARNING NETWORK A PERMANENT HOME?

In April I was quoted extensively in this article by Education Review on the VLN Primary & CoOLs. I discussed issues of sustainable resourcing, privatisation, competition & accountability. This article stemmed from a discussion with Jude Barback (Ed Review) ahead of the release of the Education & Science Select Committee report on the Education (Update) Amendment Bill. The report was released quietly with no comment from the media (except for the PPTA) and hugely overshadowed by the simultaneous release of another pivotal education review report the Productivity Commission report on 'New models of tertiary education.' The cynic in me would wonder if these two landmark educational policy reports were deliberately released to dilute the comment and feedback. So much to read, so much to process!

So what was in the Education & Science Select Committee report in relation to CoOLs? Well not much. There was very little of substance that has been amended from the original proposed bill apart from the extended timeline and the amalgamation of the section on provisional accredited cools into the main section on Cools. So really no surprises, this report reflects the majority view.
The concerns noted by the minor parties are also echoed in parts of our submission to the committee and it is good to see they pay particular credence to submissions from Dr Michael Barbour (Michael is on our Governance group). You can read the full report here.

Since the report was released there have been a couple of Q & A reports and a Departmental report. The Departmental report is a summary of key points raised in the submissions - 40 pages on CoOLs. Q & A's I have summarised the parts on CoOLs in this document.