Nothing International about it

That swanky IB school can help your child, but watch out for some pitfalls, warns Radhika Raj

GD Somani School is your usual south Mumbai school — a playground, corridors that echo the din of the classrooms, wooden benches and grey walls with an occasional scrawl — until it branches out into the BD Somani International School (BDSIS) at the fourth floor of the same building.

The doors lead to plush, air-conditioned premises with excellent lighting, audio-visual equipment and a rooftop cafeteria. It’s ‘International’ after all.

But Don Gardner, principal of BDSIS warns that there is much more to an international school than great infrastructure and swanky classrooms.

“Running an International Baccalaureate(IB) school involves much more. Parents must be extremely careful of not getting carried away by the ‘international’ tag,” he says.

IB is the new educational kid on the block. According to the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), there are 10 IB schools in Mumbai, and more than 21 will introduce the IB syllabus within the next year. But there are others who are ‘posing’ as international schools.

There is nothing ‘international’ about the Swami Vivekanand International School in Borivali. “We have an SSC syllabus, but the word international has always been a part of our name,” say school authorities.

Many schools take naïve parents for a ride. It happened to Shubhangi Mehta. New to Mumbai, Mehta wanted her daughter to go to an IB school.

“The Ajmera Global School website says it is an IB school and the authorities confirmed the same. But when I checked the official IBO website, the school was not on their list,” says Mehta.

Ajmera World School is a candidate IB school and has to apply for authorisation. Ajmera’s principal did not return this reporter’s phone calls.

Judith Guy, IBO representative of the Asia-Pacific region says: “Schools undertake a feasibility study and then apply for candidate status. Once they have gone through a period of implementation and teacher training, they can apply for authorisation.”

Dr Pillay Global Academy flaunts advertisements boasting of an IB ‘based’ curriculum. But accreditation is still under process.

“We will be an IB diploma school in 2009 and we are trying to incorporate their style of teaching,” says principal TA James.

Most of the IB schools in Mumbai do not offer the whole IB package. They follow the ICSE and CBSE syllabus till Class X and introduce IB syllabus only at Diploma level (after class X).

Only Ecole Mondiale World School offers a complete IB programme — IB Primary Years Programme, IB Middle Years Programme and IB Diploma Programme. Podar International has the Middle Years and IB Diploma programmes.

But getting into a school is only half the challenge. The transition does not come easy.

“When students are shifted from a rote-learning methodology to a more analytical syllabus, many cannot cope. Added to this is the lack of consistency and guidance by teachers who are constantly changing because they are poached by other schools,” says psychiatrist Harish Shetty.

Supriya Atal, educationist at Dhirubhai Ambani International School says that a conscious orientation-programme is necessary.

“Adopting an international curriculum is a cultural shift; it’s tougher and more challenging for students and teachers. Most schools face trouble during the first semester.”

Torn between the two systems and bogged down by this shift, students have much to live up to. “We have exams all the time and in spite of being in an international system, we are judged on the basis of scores. How is it different from the ICSE system?” says one student.

An IB school may charge from Rs2,75,000 to Rs6 lakh per annum and the fees are constantly rising. But, students who plan to appear for competitive exams in India after this course are perhaps the worst hit.

“Universities in India and abroad do take our students on the basis of their predictive scores. But the IITs and IIMs have their entrance exams in May. IB exams fall during the same month. These students could lose a year,” says Gardner.

Most IB students tend to go abroad to study.  Yet parents are aware that an IB diploma can be a passport to better opportunities.

r_radhika@dnaindia.net