Bermuda High School students are busy tapping into the Electronic Information Superhighway after the school became the first on the Island to offer Internet.

But teachers and students are fighting for space on the system, introduced two weeks ago, for information gleaned from daily newspapers around the world to images of dissected frogs.

Director of Studies Mrs. Teresa Sousa claims the system will revolutionise education as students gain access to up-to-the-minute, electronically-updated information.

"It really favours independent study because students can explore their interests as well as prepare for school assignments,'' she said. "We are using it in every subject.'' History teachers use the system to demonstrate bias to their students who scrutinise and compare daily Russian newspapers with others.

And biologists and animal lovers prefer to watch a dissection on screen instead of in the lab.

"We can't get students off it,'' Mrs. Sousa said. "It is updated to the minute. Pretty soon we won't be able to live without it.'' Internet is particularly suited to General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) course work that places emphasis on the collation of information from different sources and independent study, Mrs. Sousa said.

"We don't use one text book anymore,'' she admitted.

Senior computer teacher Mrs. Lise Alban said while Internet was intended for use as a resource, books would not disappear altogether.

But expensive and quickly-outdated encyclopaedias may soon be made redundant by CDs which hold up to 22 volumes per disc.

And "talk'' features such as E-Mail mean BHS students can communicate and share information with their peers as well as access university libraries around the world.

Mrs. Alban added more terminal access was needed before it became a real classroom tool, but with 25 million networkers already, and a 3,000 percent increase each month in the number of personal users, she said Internet would fast become the way of the future for schools.

BHS development officer Mrs. Judy Masters agreed, saying students were using Internet as a "vital educational resource''.

"It is already becoming indispensable... We feel strongly that Internet will expand our students' horizons and stimulate independent learning.'' HOOKED ON INTERNET -- Bermuda High School for Girls students can't get enough of the new computer information system recently introduced to the school.

Absorbed, from left, are Jarita Dill, Director of Studies Mrs. Teresa Sousa, Keisha Pitt, and, sitting, Alexandra Storie.