Monday 27 March 2017

What is the IB International Baccalaureate Program

Today, parents have several educational boards to choose for their children. Besides the ICSE and SSC Boards, the International Baccalaureate (IB) board is also becoming popular. International Baccalaureate is an internationally-recognized school system that consists of three educational programs:

Three IB Programs:

PYP (Primary Years Programme)

MYP (Middle Years Programme)

DP (Diploma Programme)

Founded in 1968 by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), the IB program is application-based and practical. IBO is basically a non-profit educational organization that is based in Geneva, Switzerland. This international organization is not associated with any particular country. It is free from the national political educational agendas.

IB programme has a broader spectrum of subjects that lead to the overall development of students. The examinations held under this program are meant for testing the knowledge of students and not their speed and memory. Till the Middle Years Programme, there are no examinations. The main focus is on ‘how to learn’ instead of ‘what to learn’.

Students are given the opportunity to choose their own books because there are no prescribed textbooks under these educational programs. The main idea of these programmes is to produce global citizens. At times, the programme does use the local curriculum as a base. For instance, in the DP (Diploma Programme), Hindi can be offered as a second language.

As compared to ICSE and CBSE, IB curriculum is more challenging as far as quality of assignments is concerned. The challenge is not in the amount of work that is assigned to the students. Schools that are recognized by the International Baccalaureate Organization are IB World Schools. Such India international schools offer IB curriculum. Currently, there are approximately 18 IB World Schools in India, scattered over 11 cities. Number of such schools is growing across the globe.