International Baccalaureate Programmes

WHAT IS AN IB EDUCATION?

Imagine a worldwide community of schools, educators and students with a shared vision and mission to empower young people with the skills, values and knowledge to create a better and more peaceful world.

This is the International Baccalaureate (IB). In 1968 the first programme offered by the IB, the Diploma Programme (DP), was established. It sought to provide  a challenging yet balanced education that would facilitate geographic and cultural mobility by providing an internationally recognized university entrance qualification that would also serve the deeper purpose of
promoting intercultural understanding and respect.

With the introduction of the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in 1994 and the Primary Years Programme in 1997, the IB identified a continuum of international education for students aged 3 to 19. The introduction of the IB Career-related Programme in 2012 enriched this continuum by providing a choice of international education pathways for 16 to 19 year old students.

Each of the IB programmes reflects a central desire to provide an education that enables students to make sense of the complexities of the world around them, as well as equipping them with the skills and dispositions needed for taking responsible action for the future. They provide an education that crosses disciplinary, cultural, national and geographical boundaries, and that champions critical engagement, stimulating ideas and effective relationships.

These aspirations are summed up in our ambitious mission:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. 

Students learn how to learn

Throughout all IB programmes, students develop approaches to learning skills and the attributes of the IB learner profile.

Students are able to take responsibility for their own learning and understand how knowledge itself is constructed; this is further to our unique theory of knowledge (TOK) course. They are encouraged to try different approaches to learning and to take responsibility for their own educational progress.

Our programmes help IB students:

• ask challenging questions
• think critically
• develop research skills proven to help them in higher education.

IB programmes also encourage students to be active in their communities and to take their learning beyond academic study.