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‘We are creating today’s citizens for tomorrow’s global world’

In its ongoing series of conversations, DNA asked an outstanding panel of educationists to highlight the need for International Schools.

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In its ongoing series of conversations, DNA asked an outstanding panel of educationists to highlight the need for  International Schools.

In the last one year a large number of international schools have emerged in the city. The reasons are clear—moulding the education environment to suit children, making them global citizens and helping them set career goals at an early age. Their difference lies largely in their global course content like International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and International Baccalaureate (IB) which are  suited perfectly to the Indian scenario.

International schools for all
Panellists put to rest parents' worry about the cost of education in international schools. Abhimanyu Basu, of Dhirubhai  Ambani International School said, “The cost for a student studying under the IGCSE system is approximately Rs60,000-80,000 per year, while for an IB programme the cost comes to around Rs3,00,000 per year.” 

While Vandana Lulla, of Podar World School, said, “Both systems give  personalised attention. The cost of IB scales up as the student teacher ratio is 1:15 students in an IB as over IGCSE which has a ratio of 1:20 students or more.”  Lulla also added that international schools have to explain most concepts by taking students on field trips, exchange programmes, university visits, students' workshops as a part of the regular time table with no hidden costs. While Kusum Kanwar, of  Billabong High informed, “A school needs to have top class science facilities, library, media centre, well equipped studios for art, craft and design technology.”

Panellists also agreed to the fact that teachers training costs for international schools are enormous. Further, they have to be trained and upgraded on a regular basis. There are regular inspections from the board level and if they are not satisfied a school can be a licence of the programmes. Divya Punjabi, of Billabong High opined that even getting the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO's) approval to offer its programmes and maintain the approval is every expensive for a school.

Exploring IGCSE 
IGCSE is a young and structured curriculum. According to the panellists this type of course content is more suitable to the Indian sentiment of education as exams are conducted at every level. “As Indians we are certainly adept at appearing for competitive tests this helps students to involve themselves better with  IGCSE,” said Jesse Vas, Jamnabai Narsee School.

To qualify for the IGCSE programme students have to appear for
the checkpoint exam at class IX level.

“Conducted after class VIII the Checkpoint exam is a diagnostic test of Maths, Science and English which helps the student to identify his area of expertise and decide upon his future course work,” said Basu. “The IGCSE curriculum has an in-depth approach whereas IB is a wide spread curriculum,” he added. 

There are five subject groups with 58 subjects to choose from with varying levels of difficulty according to the aptitude. However, students can choose a minimum of five subjects and maximum of how many ever they wish. If the student chooses seven subjects then he or she is awarded the International Certificate of Education (ICE).

Post the IGCSE class 10 exam they move to their AS and A levels which is the class 11 and 12.  “Selecting subjects helps students to choose what they want to study rather than being imposed with something they don't want to,” explained Basu.

Demystifying IB
As compared to the IGCSE, IB does not believe in exams. There is only one IB diploma exam, after 12 years of schooling equivalent to HSC exams. Basu explained, “When pursuing IB a student cannot switch boards before he completes Class XII and gets an IB diploma.
To suit India's exam based education system, we  encourage students to give IGCSE exams of Class IX and X and then jump to the IB board."

Stressing the importance of the IB methodology Lulla said, “IB is about holistic education. A student has to take a subjects at higher and standard levels from every stream like languages, individuals and societies (history, economics, business and management), sciences (biology, chemistry, physics or EVS), mathematics and computer science, and electives in visual arts.”

IB also gives a chance to do a mini PhD. “Students must choose a topic for independent research and write a 4,000 word essay on it. Research must not be only from books or the internet but come from interactions and practical findings and create new knowledge,” said Vasudevan Pillai of Pillai Global Academy.

Stressing on the CAS—Creativity, Action and Service part of the curriculum, Edul Behram of RBK International Academy, said, “CAS leads to growth and development of a student's personality. Each student must complete 150 hours in CAS to get the diploma.”

Harpreet Randhawa of SVKM International School said, “The IB curriculum makes students adventurous and sensitive to their surroundings. They learn to be true global citizens by working with curiosity on a local level.” Lulla added, “Students learn how to question what they read, reflect critically on their study content. They learn time management under the rigorous curriculum.”

Choices after IBDP and IGCSE?
A number of options are available for students who complete after IB and IGCSE. “Students who have completed their IBDP programme get scholarships to top Ivy league colleges in the US,” said Lulla.
At the home front also they have multiple choices just like their counterparts passing out of the Indian boards of education. “They can qualify for any streams—BA, Bcom, BSC and the professional courses like BScIT, BMM and BMS,” said Vas.

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