Expansion of IB Education in India

At the higher secondary school level education in India, apart from the respective State Boards, there are two other national panels – Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) that conduct the final year examinations. The successful students are eligible for the under graduation courses in various universities in the country. In addition to these three Indian boards, three other global agencies have made their presence felt in India. Incidentally, the forerunner of CISCE was also with links in England that used to conduct the Junior Cambridge and Senior Cambridge examinations in India till late 50s.

A majority of the members of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) have recognised the schools affiliated to these international boards to pave the way for students from these institutions to enter the portals of a college. These are the International Baccalaureate (IB) having its Foundation office in Geneva and operational centre at Cardiff as well as two more British organisations Cambridge International Examination (CIE) and Edexcel. Schools associated with these global bodies use the tag of ‘International’ or ‘World’ against their names. Thus an International Baccalaureate School in India is referred as IB World School.

The IB has certain four prescribed programmes for the students in the age group of 3 to 19 years. It is claimed that these modules challenge the youngsters to excel in their studies and motivate them to excel in both personal and academic fields. These are in four categories:

• Primary Years – Known as (PYP) it is for students aged 3-12 years.
• Middle Years – Known as (MYP) it is for students aged 11-16 years.
• Diploma – Known as (DP) it is for students aged 16-19 years.
• Career Orientation –Career-related Programme (CP) is for students aged 16-19 years.

As for the International Baccalaureate India first witnessed first teaching of the IB in 1976 and it has spread its wings far and wide. Currently, there are 120 such schools. A team of experts from IBO monitor the progress of their curriculum and assess each institution periodically.