Christopher Harrison Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 Our school started the IB program in September 08 but after one year they are planning to stop offering it as an alternative to A Levels. This decision does not affect my year however I feel it is the wrong decision. The reason that the school has given is that it can no longer run the course due to financial troubles. Please Please Please can anybody suggest a viable solution or solutions as we can all agree that no school should have to discontinue the IB after only one year.Thanks in advance for any solutions. Especially if you are involved in a school which has undergone a similar situation. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 (edited) I would also vote to stop it Not that that comment is hugely helpful.If the problems are financial you'd either have to find a more cost-effective way of running the IB (e.g. larger uptake, smaller range of courses, simultaneous A Level and IB teaching) or some sort of funding for it.EDIT: I should add, there's always the option of going IB. As in totally IB. I can't remember which school it is, but there's some book I read about the IB which had a case study of a state school which had the same dilemma and decided to just go all out and take up the IB as their main course. Major success story. You should see if you can find it. Edited May 21, 2009 by Sandwich Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aliase Posted May 21, 2009 Report Share Posted May 21, 2009 Our school also decided to stop the IB, well the school's social science branche anyway. The main reasons are the fact the teachers are tired of teaching it (it's a lot more work), there is a programme change in psychology coming or already in progress (I don't really know), there arem't enough students take the programme and there aren't enough funds. So people in Quebec aren't able to take Psychology HL and Anthropology HL anymore... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vvi Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 Recruiting more students for September who wish to take the IB would probably help, as in most UK schools A-Levels are the main program and IB only has a small number of people taking it, which means that if on has to get scrapped then it will be the smaller one. Simultaneous A-Level and IB teaching probably wouldn't work, as the syllabi are different.I can get why your school might be getting rid of it, it costs a lot to send IB teachers on training courses (ours are constantly having to go to conferences in Moscow/London), and your school probably also has had to employ more staff who teach only IB (and if they teach both A-Levels and IB, they may be going crazy from all the different syllabi and coursework). A lot of private schools in the UK are going bankrupt now because of the financaal crisis, so it may be the only alternative if your school wants to remeain open. Would you prefer that your school gets closed down entirely and everyone has to find a new one, or that they keep running A-Levels and not IB? As you said, the decision doens't really affect your year anyways, and it will be easier for people to get into UK universities with A-Levels (since they ask IB students for higher points on their diploma). Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Harrison Posted May 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 I think I should add some more information. My school is a state funded school whose main course is A Levels. The teachers who teach IB are also A Level teacher as there are only a few IB students. They have been trained at a huge cost and that is one of the reasons that I feel that stopping the IB is such a waste. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vvi Posted May 22, 2009 Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 Well fair enough then, if it cost a lot to train them and all then it does seem like your money is going down the drain. Why did they start the course though, if only a few people were going to do IB? Were they expecting more people to sign up that never did?The thing is, schools have to be run like businesses sometimes. Otherwise they just end up falling into debt and the government probably doesn't have too much extra money over there right now to be bailing schools out. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Harrison Posted May 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2009 The main problem is that there was little financial planning carried out. However the numbers were due to increase. We can assume then upon the publication of the results from the current year twelve we would have far more interest. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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