Will it be IB for your kid?

For World-Bound Students

Throughout the four decades of its existence, the IB program still maintains the noble goal of creating responsible, socially-conscious adults who use their cross-cultural education to promote world peace through global understanding. IB today has evolved to cater to a newly improved, tough standard of education whereby it provides a more challenging educational experience for students.

The purpose of the IB curriculum is to help prepare students for the future, by instilling various essential skills that can help them in analyzing the complexities of the world. These are clearly reflected in IB’s mission statement which is:

To develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

IB programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

IB Programs

Currently, IB is available in 148 countries and is the curriculum of choice for over 900,000 over students. The support of parents towards this world-based education has seen remarkable growth over the past decades. IB offers four types of programs for students from as young as 3 years old to 19 years old.

These programs are fashioned to fit their students’ capabilities in such a way that they can help develop them in various aspects of intellectual, emotional, personal and social skills. Each program carries with it an unique goal for its age group and purpose but they sync together to reach the main goal of unity. The programs offered are as follows:

• Primary Year Program – 3 years old to 12 years old
• Middle Year Program – 12 years old to 16 years old
• Diploma Program – 16 years old to 19 years old
• International Baccalaureate Career-related Certificates – 16 years old to 19 years old

Program Description

During its early existence, IB programs merely concentrated on students who sought after pre-university preparations with a focus on preparation life after studies.

They developed their program starting off with Middle Year Program (MYP) back in the 1990’s and this program is specifically for students aged between 12 to 16 years old. In MYP, IB focuses on how students can make connections with their surroundings and with themselves.

After that, around the 1996’s, it piloted its new program which is the Primary Year Program that caters for toddlers and young children between 3 to 6 years old. In PYP, kids are given the ‘basic’ lessons and their critical skills such as asking questions are enhanced.

The latest of all IB programs is the International Baccalaureate Career-related Certificates. It provides a pathway of career for students aged from 16 to 19 years old. In 2014, IB renewed and developed its MYP program as well. All these four programs adheres to the IB learner profile.

A Challenging Yet Interesting Program

IB schools programs are famous for their challenging workloads. Students are required to study everything in-depth, which in turn requires more concentration and comprehensive research. Their examinations may be quite challenging too, which is why IB students always seem to put more effort in studying.

Students and teachers often engage in extensive discussions about a topic. Contradictory to the usual traditional learning, whereby the teachers have full autonomy of how the discussion in class goes, IB students are generally free to lead the discussion of the learning in the classroom. In turn, questions being raised often lead to the students conducting more research.

IB programs make it necessary to learn about other’s culture and tradition as well other languages. An IB student is required to learn additional languages, either French, Spanish, Chinese – depending on the location and requirements set by the school. IB students learn these additional languages to the point of becoming fluent at it. At times, lessons are also conducted by using the second language so that it allows them to change their perspective of learning.

Benefits in a nutshell

IB programs are well-recognised around the world. This helps greatly when your child applies to universities anywhere in the world. IB program graduates also adapt much faster to their surroundings.

Parents can also be sure that their children are obtaining a high standard of education which focuses on international perspectives.

Professional development programs within the IB curriculum provide opportunities for students to enhance essential skills, making it easier for them to pursue their chosen careers.

IB students are naturally competent as the program encourages students to participate in creative and service-oriented activities. Besides that, IB students are also taught about the essence of reflecting, both on self or academic. These are qualities which promote healthy learning experiences.

In short, the IB curriculum and programs shape students’ characters to become global citizens with a lifelong thirst for knowledge.