"The what curriculum?"

Have you ever had one of those rare moments when you realised that you really did not know as much as you think you did? As a mother of four, I face that wonderfully humbling realisation every day, but I am sure that for most of The Sofia Echo's readers, it is a relatively rare occurrence this, to be faced with one's own ignorance.

Suddenly, there was a new buzz term flitting amongst the halls of academia. I repeatedly found myself in the midst of conversations that revolved around a kind of curriculum of which I knew little. (This was a blow to my ego since I am a teacher.) New foreigners were looking for this certain curriculum for their daughter. A friend at school was searching for it in Bulgaria. My colleague, a school psychologist, had heard of it. Woefully, I was among the "ignorant", who knew very little about the IB programme.

Determined to become one of the "knowledgeable" who could nonchalantly throw the term "IB curriculum" into the midst of conversation, I did what all intelligent 21st -century people do - I turned on my computer. With the whirr of my search engine, I was wading through pages of information regarding something called International Baccalaureate (IB), a group of programmes and co-ordinating exams initiated by the International Baccalaureate Organization.

The following paragraphs will serve as an introductory crash course, at best, into the various types of curriculum that parents and students may encounter or look for on the path to higher learning. This is useful information to have, especially as teenagers and their parents begin thinking about university. Certain universities give preference to students who have attended secondary schools utilising preferred curriculums. A set curriculum, such as the IB, ensures that a student has been exposed to prescribed foundational classes that provide an academic framework for a university to build upon.

The IB programme is actually not that new. It originated in Europe in the 1960s as an effort to ensure that international students would have a quality, cohesive and comprehensive education regardless of where they lived internationally. The result was a curriculum ensuring that students completing the programme attained a common base of academic exposure as well as entry-level credentials for university. The programme's creators developed it with children of diplomats, ambassadors and internationally mobile families in mind.

Today, the programme has international recognition as a pre-university curriculum that is traditional and broad, integrated and based upon international standards. Various reports differed in the number of schools and countries offering the programme, but a median ratio was almost 1600 secondary schools in 125 countries with approximately 50 000 students enrolled. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the IB Organization governs schools that offer the IB programme while the IB Curriculum and Assessment Centre in Cardiff, Wales, administers the programme.

The curriculum does exist for the elementary and middle school, but the main thrust of the programme concentrates on 11th- and 12th-grade students or those between the ages of 16 and 19. The IB curriculum focuses on something they call "core components", which are: Theory of Knowledge (ToK); Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS); and Extended Essay. Within that core, there are six subjects of concentration over the two-year course of study: primary language, second language, experimental sciences, the arts, mathematics and computer sciences, and individuals and societies.

Various articles cited two studies from the 1980s that show significantly higher grade-point averages at university as well as higher SAT scores in students who graduated from secondary school with an IB diploma.

Another programme worth mentioning is the Advanced Placement (AP) system, which allows high school students to take university-level courses and earn university credit while they are still in high school, granted after they have successfully passed certain exams.

According to the AP website, over 90 per cent of US universities have an AP policy for granting students credit and placement. The AP website also had a link to AP International but I was unable to access it. A perfunctory computer search of AP schools in Bulgaria was unrewarding.
An internet search found two schools in Bulgaria that offer the IB curriculum and diploma. Both are in Sofia. Those schools are: The American College of Sofia (www.acs.bg) and The Zlartarski School (www.zlatarskischool.org).

Autumn's cool fingers have already begun to loosen summer's scorching hold on the temperature gauge and the smell of school is in the air. Indeed, even as you read this week's Family Matters, most children will already have returned to their halls of academia.

Brisk, early mornings, homework, books, friends, teachers, grades and tests: from a teacher's perspective, my soul resonates with an "ahhh", for there is joy to be found on the pathway of learning! Together, we face the challenge of conquering ignorance with the tool of education… Welcome back!

To contact: International Baccalaureate North America 200 Madison Avenue, Suite 2301 New York, NY 10016 USA
Tel: +1.212.696.4464 Fax: +1.212.889.9242 E-mail: IBNA@ibo.org