Andhra Pradesh: 4,000 government schools to teach IB programmes; IB will also review AP Board exams

NEW DELHI: The International Baccalaureate (IB), a private international board, has recently signed an agreement with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to transform its schools inline with the IB framework and also review the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams conducted by the Board of Secondary Education AP (BSEAP) and Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education (BIEAP). The IB board also has existing agreements with Delhi and Haryana governments.

Haif Bannayan, IB’s global director of business development, Amy Parker Dixon, director of marketing and communications, and Mahesh Balakrishnan, IB's development and recognition manager in India, spoke to Careers360 about its involvement in public education. Edited excerpts below.

Q. Could you tell me more about the Andhra Pradesh project?

Haif Bannayan: We were contacted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh a few months back and they wanted to collaborate with the IB.

The discussions are really around two main pathways – systemic engagement on the Classes 10 and 12 board exams and exploring the implementation of IB in some of the beacon schools, they call them “Lighthouse Schools”.

We have signed the letter of intent but we are currently working on scoping the project in more detail, on how we engage with the government on a systematic review of their board of examination.

And we're also talking about the implementation of an IB-inspired programme at the primary level from Class 1 in the Lighthouse Schools which are around 4,000 schools. Andhra Pradesh has around 55,000 schools overall.

We're still in discussions with them. So, nothing is finalised yet.

Q. IB already has a partnership with the Delhi government. How does that compare to the current project in Andhra Pradesh?

HB: The engagement with the Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) started in the summer of 2020. We are talking about 30 schools that will be implementing 40 of our programmes. The implementation with the Delhi Board is exactly how we normally implement our programmes. We are only providing them with more support to enable them to do this kind of implementation.

So, I would say the difference is that the scope is less. In Delhi, We're talking about 40 programmes in 30 schools, but they are also taking our programmes in the way we normally implement them around the world.

Whereas in Andhra Pradesh, I would anticipate it's going to be on a larger scale and may not necessarily be the exact model of what we normally do. It's very much dependent on their readiness and they're willingness to do things on this large a scale.

Q. What do you mean when you say it will not be the exact IB model?

HB: Our Primary Year Programme (PYP) and Middle Year Programme (MYP) is a framework that gets applied to any type of curriculum. It's a pedagogy that we are more focused on and not the actual curriculum.

We will actually be doing the review of the Andhra Pradesh curriculum and see the applicability and then introduce the framework. That's why PYP and MYP can be used around the world and in the language that the country uses. So there will be a lot of professional development of teachers, as well as preparing the schools for such kind of implementation.

Q. For the students, it seems like a drastic shift. Do you think it will be difficult for them?

HB: We would not be able to comment on that until we actually do our own review work together with the government of Andhra Pradesh. We're still in discussions on how we will be implementing this project. We signed the letter of intent only three weeks back.

There will be a consideration, of course, otherwise, the programme would fail.

Q. What about the funding and the cost?

HB: Nothing has been decided yet. We do have a commitment from the government on the funding, but we do not have a specific figure or a locked budget. And the reason for that is that we want to work with them on the solution that works and then accordingly we can decide what budget would be required for that.

Q. Do you have any agreement with any other state governments?

Mahesh Balakrishnan: We have an agreement with Haryana which we signed earlier in the year, in May. They would be taking all of our programmes into 20 schools. They would be starting the process very soon. We also have a school in partnership with the Mumbai Municipal Corporation.

Q. You have schools across more than 150 countries. How does the approach vary?

HB: Our programmes, in the normal implementation, are implemented in over 5,600 schools. In general, they are implemented under similar standards and practices. There are very clear set pathways for authorisation and pre-requirements for teachers qualifications.

When it comes to PYP and MYPs, schools apply them using their own curriculum but in general they are around the same.

There are some government partnerships that have resulted in varied types of implementation and that's why we are going to work with Andhra Pradesh to really identify their needs.

Because we have some past experience with that. So, for example, we have a partnership with a government in Japan and a partnership with a government in Korea, where we are delivering the diploma with some subjects delivered in Korean and some subjects in Japanese, based on their request.

Q. In Andhra Pradesh, most public schools would be Telugu-medium with teachers used to teaching in the language. Do you see any difficulties arising?

HB: My understanding is that the Government of Andhra Pradesh has a lot of teachers who are proficient in English. Recently, they also held an English proficiency test. IB would do the pedagogical workshops and ensure that their capacity is built up. And it's not just one time; the Government of Andhra Pradesh and IB are in it for the long term.

We're not looking at a quick implementation and I think this is what is making us even more excited because they're looking at a holistic kind of transformation that could take up to 12 years.

And it's that understanding of the Government of Andhra Pradesh that really was drawing us, because they really understand that to transform education it takes time and I feel that they picked the IB because they trust in the quality of our programmes.

Q. Has there been any discussion on the medium of language? Andhra Pradesh has been converting a lot of schools into English medium.

HB: It is their intent to convert many schools to English medium schools. But IB also supports implementation in the local language. We also support multilingualism. That is the hallmark of the IB. We do not see the medium of instruction as an issue at this stage.

Q. Recently IB allowed students to refer to ChatGPT for their assignments, etc. Could you help me understand the thinking behind this?

HB: Avoiding it is the wrong way to go about it. Because even if we avoid it, the students are going to use it. That's why we actually are advocating our teachers and our schools to start familiarising themselves with the technology, and to even start using these themselves in facilitating some of the work. They need to focus more on really understanding the quality of the work and being able to differentiate between a ChatGPT kind of essay versus a really a proper quality essay created by the student.

Q. Could you briefly summarise what IB will bring to the Andhra Pradesh schools?

HB: I think other than the scope that I gave you, it all remains to be seen. I think Andhra Pradesh is eager to modernise their board of examination. Their Class 10 and Class 12 examinations.

They're trying to fight to develop something along the lines of how IB does their own assessments. We will be looking to see how we can help them identify the key levers to pull, to create this kind of improvement and support them with that.

And similarly, what we hope is we can infuse some of our innovations in the way we do education for teachers and for students and introduce them to the schools.