Open schooling is characterised by several features including:

• an open, flexible approach,
• the physical separation of learner from teacher, and
• the use of unconventional teaching methodologies and ICT.

It is called open schooling rather than open and distance schooling, because openness and flexibility are more important features than physical separation. Usually there are no rules dictating student ages, prerequisites, content of courses or number of courses in which learners must enroll. As a result, open schooling meets the needs of a broad range of learners:

• Young people who missed out on schooling in their childhood can pursue a secondary education without having to attend classes with much younger children.
• Young mothers can learn at home and attend tutorials when necessary.
• Working adults can study while continuing to earn a living.
• People of all ages can acquire new skills and knowledge to improve their livelihoods.

Open schooling uses self-instructional materials - materials that can also be used in the conventional school system. Local Study Centres often provide personal support and facilities for sitting examinations.
Open schooling dates back to the early 20th century in the industrialised world. The origins of open schools today were in the original correspondence schools and school radio such as the famed Australian School of the Air. Open schools today take many forms - some are complements to the conventional education system, while others are alternatives. Some are independent; others are branches of open universities, branches of ministries of education or run by school boards. The common elements are openness and flexibility.

The promotion and support of open schooling are key planks of COL's work. In 1994, COL produced one of the first known publications on open schooling, and it has supported the establishment of open schools throughout the developing world. COL also helped to establish a Consortium of Open Schools in Southern Africa, sponsored training workshops related to open schooling and conducted a needs assessment and draft action plan for the establishment of an open school in Nigeria.

COL is currently working to support the growth of open schooling through several initiatives:

• Conducting and publishing a research report that examined the costs and effectiveness of open schools, focusing on India and Namibia,
• Developing a handbook for managers of open schools, and
• Publishing a new book in our "Perspectives on Distance Education" series that focuses on open schooling issues for policy makers.

"Open schooling is an area crying out for more research," said COL President Sir John Daniel in a recent presentation to the World Bank. While there is growing recognition that open schooling has the potential to address the challenge of increasing access to secondary education now that Universal Primary Education is on the way to being achieved, there is little research data about its effectiveness and efficiency.

COL has made a start on the research agenda by commissioning a study of the costs and effectiveness of two open schools in
different environments: the National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) in India and the Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL). The study was conducted in 2007 by Professor Badri Koul and Professor Greville Rumble.

NIOS provides an alternative to conventional secondary education for 300,000 students, while NAMCOL, a distance education college within the Ministry of Education, provides education to almost half of Namibian students who sit senior secondary examinations.

"Open Schooling for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education: Costs and Effectiveness in India and Namibia" made several significant findings:

• Cost efficiency: NAMCOL is a lean organisation with a small core staff. Economically, it is very efficient in terms of its unit costs per student, in comparison with the formal system. NIOS is also found to be very cost-efficient when compared to other schooling systems in India.
• Learner profile: In general, conventional schools are not open to people who are aged 20 and over. In contrast, the vast majority of NIOS's and NAMCOL's secondary school learners are between the ages of 15 and 25.
• Role: While NAMCOL supplements the formal education system, NIOS serves as an alternative. The study confirms that open schools can be either a complementary or alternative system to the conventional school system.
• Pass rates: NAMCOL students generally do not perform as well as students in the full-time system. While NIOS students perform well in comparison with the students taking other Boards' secondary education examinations, they do not perform as well at the higher secondary level.
• Curriculum: NIOS offers vocational educational opportunities alongside more academic school subjects. NAMCOL's main focus is the academic stream, but plans are underway to broaden access to vocational courses.
• Quality assurance: The quality of NAMCOL's course materials is not in doubt and logistically the College performs well, but the student support system could be improved further to ensure that a higher proportion of students achieve their aim of getting an A to C grade in the national examination. NIOS has well-defined processes for curriculum development. Administrative and academic support is provided to the learners through the Accredited Institutes, which are selected against strict criteria. Academic facilitators monitor activities at these Institutes, including teaching and assignment marking. However, there is some doubt as to whether these monitoring processes are adequate, and there is no current means of planning and reviewing a system-wide process of evaluation and quality assurance.

Open schooling is significantly more cost-efficient than formal education and can have retention rates approaching 90 percent, the study finds. It is a powerful way of addressing issues of equity and social justice since it can bring the formerly excluded into the schooling system. And it can ramp up technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the school system.

The principal area needing attention is learner support. This is an imperative that open schooling shares with open and distance learning at all levels.

While policy makers and ministries of education are beginning to understand the potential for open schooling to meet the demand for education beyond the primary level, they often don't fully appreciate what is required to make open schools effective.

To help build capacity among managers of open schools, COL is developing a comprehensive handbook that outlines best practices in areas ranging from staffing and corporate governance, to marketing and financing. COL convened a meeting of experts in open schooling from Australia, Botswana, Canada, India, Namibia, New Zealand and the U.K. in February 2008 for a week-long workshop focused on developing this handbook. It is expected to be released later this year and will be posted on WikiEducator for comment.

One of the findings of the open schooling study commissioned by COL is that political will is necessary to make open schooling an integral part of a national education system. This political will needs to be expressed in the form of enabling policy. Governments must commit adequate human, financial and technical resources for open schools to succeed. Policy makers must approve the economic model, which sees a higher upfront investment that pays off in lowering operating costs once the system is running.

To help policy makers fully understand what open schools require, COL is publishing a new title in its "Perspectives on Distance Education" series. This book will help both governments that are planning new open schools and those that are overseeing the operation of existing open schools. Through case studies and recommendations, this book will help policy makers establish sustainable and successful open schools.

"Above all, we hope this book will help policy makers understand the need to balance access and quality in open schools," said Mrs. Frances Ferreira, COL Education Specialist, Basic Education and Open Schooling. "Open schools are an important way of increasing access, but it's important not to sacrifice quality. There's little advantage to educating masses of people if it doesn't help them improve their livelihoods."

COL's next area of focus is the development of open educational resources for open schools, while also encouraging further research. As more learning materials are developed and freely shared, as the capacity of open school managers increases and as governments develop policy that support sustainable open schools, the potential of open schooling will begin to be realised. Indeed, we will see dramatic advances in learning for development.