IB: BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The International Baccalaureate (IB) was created by a group of educational visionaries and was first taught in 1968 at the International School of Geneva. The IB draws heavily on the ideas principles of a French educator called Marie-Thérèse Maurette published in her 1948 research booklet: Educational techniques for Peace. Do they exist?

Maurette was the founding architect of what we would recognise now as international education, constructed around: a global (rather than national) geographical and historical view of the world and two languages. She was borne of a generation, scarred by war and ideological conflict, who believed that if war begins in the mind of man, then it is by changing minds through education that we can achieve lasting peace.

This ‘pedagogy of peace’ as it is known was inspired by the different international institutions present in Geneva at the time - the League of Nations and The International Labour Organisation - and latterly has been closely tied to UNESCO.

Also fundamental to the inception of IB were Kurt Hahn – whom you may have heard of because of his associations with Gordonstoun School - and Alec Peterson, a teacher from Edinburgh who was a close friend of Hahn’s and the first ever Director General of the IB.

The people who devised the IB had lived through the Second World War, and they wanted to design a curriculum for lasting peace and intercultural understanding. The war they had lived through was fuelled by intolerance, a belief of superiority and a disregard for others and their way of life. They wanted not just to offer pupils an excellent set of examination results; they wanted to grow the right kind of people to make a global difference. They aspired to producing young people who - along with being intellectually well-rounded and life long learners - would act as guardians of the planet and its future generations.

The first programme of the IB – the Diploma Programme – was designed and created by academics of Oxford University along with members of UN agencies in Geneva. You might ask: why Geneva? Well, because Geneva was (and is) home to around 20 United Nations agencies and the diplomats from all over the world who wanted an education for their children which reflected their own beliefs and international values. Furthermore, the founders wanted a portable education for the sons and daughters of diplomats and world travellers, so they had to make sure it wasn’t locked into a national curriculum or tied to a political agenda.

The founders began by identifying values around which the entire curriculum would be based to ensure that the students of IB would grow up tolerant, multinational people who would value peace over war and work together across frontiers and borders. Therefore, unlike most other education systems, the values of the IB were established before the content.

One of the reasons IB is so successful as an educational model is because it’s based on a Mission Statement and set of values which underpin and define it rather than on a 'box of knowledge' like many other curricula (including the Scottish and English systems). The curriculum content is rigorous, and is refreshed every seven years to ensure it remains current and in line with shifting global trends, however the process of learning is given the same priority and credibility as the facts and knowledge. The Mission and the IB's pledge to create Education for a Better World is testament to this and what gives IB its distinctiveness.

The values then evolved into what IB call The Learner Profile: a set of characteristics and attributes which every pupil develops over the two years. Courses are planned, written and delivered in order to develop these, so they are not a 'bolt on accessory'; rather they are central to the whole experience.

So, because it’s based on a set of values, and because it is taught in over 150 countries, IB is a very consistent curriculum. It does not change year on year: it adapts because we learn new things but it is not subject to changing national standards, or the whims and fancies of politicians around the world, or to a political agenda.

Another feature which sets IB apart is The Core. In both the Diploma Programme, and the Career-related Programme, there is a compulsory, timetabled 'core' which pupils must complete alongside their subjects. The Core is designed to allow pupils to live and breathe the Learner Profile attributes, and elements of it accrue additional UCAS points for University entry.

THE IB PROGRAMMES

The IB is a continuum of education – there are offer four programmes for pupils aged 3-19 years old.

• The PYP: Primary Years programme

• The MYP: Middle Years Programme

• The DP: Diploma programme which is the original programme from 1968 and covers the last two years of school

• The CP: Career-related programme which began in 2006, as the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC), and was then re-launched as the CP in November 2014.

Over 200 countries recognise the IB for entry into their Universities and it is the fastest growing education program for 16-19 year olds across the world. Between 2015 and 2019, the number of IB programmes offered worldwide has grown by nearly 40%.

IB has existed in the UK since 1971, and over 100 UK schools now offer the DP with over 50 offering the CP. Aside from ourselves, there are currently four IB schools in Scotland: Fettes College, St. Leonard's School, Fairview International School and the International School of Aberdeen. However, none of these schools in Scotland - or indeed any throughout the UK - offer the combination of SQA, IBDP and IBCP (with HNC Business) that we do at Lomond.