IB Introduction
History: The International Baccalaureate Organization was founded in Geneva, Switzerland
in 1968 as a non-profit educational foundation.
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 IB 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.
Main activities: The IB works in four areas:
- Development of curriculum
- Assessment of students
- Training and professional development of teacher
- Authorization and evaluation of schools.
Size: The IB works with 3227 schools in 141 countries to offer the three IB
programs to approximately 930,000 students with more than 50,000 teachers, 5000
examiners and around 400 staff in 12 IB offices worldwide.
Programmes: The IB offers three programmes for students aged 3 to 19. The programmes
can be offered individually or as a continuum by IB World Schools.
- The Primary Years Programme (PYP) for students aged 3-12 started in 1997 and is now offered by 790 IB World Schools in 92 countries.
- The Middle Years Programme (MYP) for students aged 11-16 started in 1994 and is now offered by 888 IB World Schools in 81 countries.
- The Diploma Programme (DP) for students aged 16 to 19 started in 1968 and is now offered by 2,261 IB World Schools in 139 countries.
(Source - www.ibo.org, April 2011)