The program of studies leading to the examinations for the International Baccalaureate diploma is designed to be comprehensive and demanding, yet available to qualified candidates throughout the
world. Based on the pattern of no single country, it represents the desire of the founders to provide students of different linguistic, cultural and educational backgrounds with the intellectual, social and critical perspectives necessary for the adult world that lies ahead of them. The young adults of today are faced with a bewildering variety of choices; it is essential, therefore, that their academic training provide them with the values and opportunities that will enable them to choose wisely. Learning how to learn has become as important as the learning of the disciplines themselves.
The I.B. Diploma Program, with its three subjects at higher level and three at standard level, requires all participants to engage in the study of languages, sciences, mathematics, and humanities until the completion of their secondary schooling. It is a deliberate compromise between the preference for specialization in some countries and the emphasis on breadth often preferred in others.
The intent is that students should indeed learn
how to learn, how to reach considered conclusions about man, his languages and literature, his ways in society and the scientific forces of his environment. This critical reflection is intended to extend also to the larger issue of international awareness.
In an age of global tension and mistrust, it is the goal of the International Baccalaureate to encourage students to be informed, to be tolerant and to be willing to communicate readily with others. They should be able to do so on a range of topics about which they have already formed considered opinions as a result of having shared a common two-year experience with other young adults around the world.
