Why Doesn’t IB (International Baccalaureate) Fit Into The Indian Scheme Of Things?

Before you assume anything, let’s just make it clear that I’m not saying that any board to be better than any other. I’m just placing my opinion that how a board can be more suitable to the Indian way of things.

            Many schools in India that offer the IB Diploma start their curriculum post class 10^th exams. Hence, students study up to class 10 on an Indian Board and then shift to IB. As such the model of learning changes drastically. Even though most might be flexible enough to make this change, many might still find it difficult to make these changes. Many schools that offer the IB curriculum put forth the impression that studying in IB makes it easier for you to get admission overseas. Well if you actually look into it, it is just mere impressions and not facts. There are hardly any universities around the well that don’t accept our recognized Indian Board certificates. Also, admission to US universities is based on SAT than on the 12^th Board exam results. So, whatever your score and Board, you have the same chance of cracking SAT. If you prepare well for SAT, you will get good marks and hence admission to the University irrespective of your Board. For other universities of the Commonwealth group, ISC is well accepted and if you see the cut-off marks for ISC and IB, the ones of ISC are more achievable.

Now, if you think that these were enough, problems don’t lie just overseas but domestic as well.

Here are some facts about the acceptance of IB in our Indian Universities:

1. Most schools and colleges across India don’t accept IB certificate even if IB provides the equivalence to class 12 certificate
2. Only a handful colleges across India (that too not all under any University) accept IB and even if they accept, there is no clear idea about their equivalence to Indian marks
3. In some cases, if the student gets admitted to the school/college, he/she needs to wait a year as the IB results are declared well after the admission process of any Indian school/college is done with
4. Even if the IB provides what they call the predicted scores within this time, these “predicted scores” are not at all accepted by the institutes
5. IB states that their students can take the IIT entrance, but IITs want the final results within the month of June itself, which is not at all possible in IB
6. Did I mention the fact that most Engineering entrance exams happen in the month of May, the same month schools under IB have their final exams? So how is a student supposed to be able to attempt and prepare for both?
7. Even if the student from IB gets admission to an Engineering college, it is a very slim chance that they will be able to perform well as IB doesn’t prepare students the way these colleges expect the incoming students to be

Here are some more things that are harmful to IB:

1. Did you know that British Engineering Undergrad degrees which are of 3 years duration may not be accepted by AIU to be equivalent to an Indian Engineering degree?
2. Did you know that if you want to work as a Lawyer or Doctor in India, you rather do your first degree which is the eligible qualification in India? Post-graduation can be overseas. Overseas qualification will pose a challenge with eligibility in these professions
3. There are talks that the electoral reforms may mean that those contesting an election in India should be “at least” a Bachelors… This may mean that many of the current politicians who have undertaken 3-year Engineering degrees or degrees that resulted due to study partly in India and partly overseas and hence not the full 3 years of normal degree or 4 years of Engineering be considered as “not a Bachelors”. This poses an interesting situation with regards to degrees of elsewhere conducted elsewhere and their validity in India
4. Diplomas in Hotel Management at top Hotel Schools worldwide that also offer an additional component of one year post the diploma that leads to a distance run Bachelor’s degree are also not considered as Bachelors by Indian guidelines
5. And such equivalences are relevant even to those Indians who are not seeking a job back in India. Yes, even an entrepreneur who wants to set up a Petrol Pump in India (an example) needs an equivalence certificate to demonstrate that his Engineering degree is valid in India and there is a case that I am aware of that even after studying at a top University overseas he has not managed to get one

Hence, do refer to the guidelines of the concerned authorities of the field you aspire of taking the admission in.

            Another propaganda given by schools offering IB is that students should take IB and then go on to study overseas. The reasons being the high cut-offs and lack of capacity for everyone. To be honest, it is very bad for schools to make students to dream of going overseas as it is not right for the nation and its citizens. Also, the fact that institutes across India have very low capacity is not true. Many colleges across India have vacant seats and the quality of the institutes is ever-increasing. Many policies have been adopted by the government as well as private institutes to keep the cut-offs in check. For your nation, don’t rule the Indian options. However, the final decision of studying overseas or domestic lies in your own hand.