I'd expect at a high school level for any programming course to focus on the fundamentals rather than being particularly worried about any given language.

These days Python would probably be a better choice than Visual Basic; but given how many languages someone working professionally will be exposed to, it doesn't matter that much. They're all just different tools and which one you use really comes down to what problem you're solving.

For late primary / early high school I still think BASIC is a great introductory language; there's a new 80s style PC - Commander X16 that has a really cool looking BASIC coming with it that also has the advantage of being completely offline so very safe to just give to kids to wail on.