International Baccalaureate Organization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is part of the International Baccalaureate series. |
|
|
|
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) is an international non-profit educational foundation, founded in 1968 in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] The organisation's original intent was to provide schools with an international curriculum which would be acceptable to universities around the world. This idea led to the creation of the IB Diploma Programme. The Middle Years Programme and Primary Years Programme were created in 1994 and 1997 respectively, allowing the IBO to offer educational programmes from the age of three to the end of the secondary level.
The IBO functions on fees charged from schools who wish to implement one or more of the organisation's educational programmes. Traditionally, the schools offering the programmes were private international schools, but the number of state schools (public schools in the U.S.) is increasing. Today, over half of all Diploma Programme students are from these schools and there are currently 1,903 schools in 124 countries implementing the organisation's programmes to more than 500,000 students aged 3 to 19 years. [2]
The organisation has four regional offices: IB North America and the Caribbean (headquartered in New York), IB Latin America (Buenos Aires), IB Asia-Pacific (Singapore), and IB Africa, Europe, and Middle East (Geneva).
The organisation's first director-general was Alec Peterson, who played a crucial part in the development of the IB and the formation of the organisation. The IBO's current director-general is Jeffrey Beard.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Overview of the International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved on December 7, 2006.
- ^ International Baccalaureate Organization (home page). Retrieved on December 19, 2006.
- ^ Director general biography. Retrieved on November 9, 2006.
