The International Baccalaureate The IB diploma was first developed in 1968 and has steadily increased in British schools and around the world. It is more intellectually rigorous than A-Level, has seen zero grade inflation, has terminal rather than modular exams, requires six subjects to be studied in depth (rather than three or four as in A-Level), involves students writing an extended project and them sitting a ‘theory of knowledge’ paper that examines critical thinking.9 A principal reason for the absence of grade inflation in the IB is that individual subjects and papers cannot be retaken, and the exam is not subject to political influence from any government.10 The ‘middle years programme’ was developed in 1994, and it is for pupils from the age of pupils age 11 to 16 (Years 7 to 11). The ‘primary years programme’ was developed in 1997 and is proving to be increasingly popular with both state primary and independent prep schools. The Cambridge ‘Pre U’ This was developed in 2008 by University of Cambridge International Examinations. Concerned by the loss of rigour in ALevels, it joined forces with a number of leading academic schools to produce this new qualification. The Pre-U has terminal exams at the end of the upper sixth, does not offer modules, and all candidates write an independent research essay. It is still, however, fundamentally the same structure to A-
9
The Education Briefing Book 2008 (Durham University, 2008) shows the diverging pass rates of the IB (stable) and A-Level (rapidly rising).
10
E-mail from Patrick Watson to Anthony Seldon, 3 January 2010.
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