IB Asia Pacific Newsletter

January - March 2006

Message from the Regional Director

Welcome to our new look newsletter for 2006. Many of you will be conscious of the launch of the new public website. The consolidation of the IB identity has resulted in a new look webpage and newsletter. We hope that you will find the new pages easier to navigate with improved access to programmes and workshops information.

Looking forward in 2006, a key focus remains on university and ministry recognition within the region. The Regional Office is setting up further meetings in Korea this quarter with the goal of having all the key Universities in Korea publish a similar admissions policy statement to that of Seoul National University. At the beginning of March, Nigel Forbes Harper and I met with representatives from the IB Schools in the Philippines and invited key personnel from the education department and top universities in the Philippines. This meeting has given us clear direction for working with the CHED and improving options for Filipino students. In January, an initial meeting of an Indonesian Development Group was set up in Jakarta, Indonesia, strongly supported by IB schools there. Subsequently a second meeting held in February began to move forward with strategies for Uni recognition in Indonesia.

The second meeting of the Indian Development Council took place at the Sagar School in Rajastan at the end of February and an action plan for developments in India presented. We had meetings with the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University and are hopeful that we will be able to publish clear admissions policies for both Delhi and Mumbai later this year.

We have a number of staff changes in the regional office. Glynn Richards will join us at the end of March as Projects Manager. Congratulations to Jiswinder Kaur, our PYP P.A. on the birth on her daughter, Vamika on 5 March. Jiswinder plans to return in June. Juliet Perez Tan left us in February after five years and our best wishes to her. Thank you to Bridget Tye who has stepped in temporarily to help us out over this period.

We would also like to welcome Ed Lawless, Teacher Education Manager, who joined the Singapore office in January. You can read more about Ed on the professional development page. Ed’s brief is to work with the IB Asia-Pacific and the IBCA team to elaborate professional development provision in Asia Pacific. In this regard we already have several new initiatives in place in 2006 – registrations are still open for the Language Convention addressing issues related to bilingualism Second Language Teaching & Learning, Language Acquisition and Mother Tongue Maintenance. Registrations are also open for experienced MYP Practitioners to participate in a new Workshop on Intercultural Awareness to be offered in Queensland in July.

There have been a number of copyright and corporate identity issues bought to our attention in the last couple of months. The Regional Office appreciates receiving details of schools websites or advertisements that might suggest relationships with the IB that are not strictly accurate. Another issue has been the posting of IB exam papers on non-secure school websites in breach of copyright. Copies of the IB Corporate Identity guidelines [1.5 mb, PDF] and also the Copyright Policy specifying the Use of IB Intellectual Property [182 kb PDF] are attached for your attention.

The response from multi-programme schools that wish to have joint evaluation and or accreditation visits has been greater than anticipated and the task of lining everything up in a balanced way has proved more challenging than anticipated! Discussions with WASC and CIS are ongoing. We hope to have dates and arrangements formalized shortly and will be in contact with all the schools who submitted the form as requested. If you missed this a copy of the Multiple Programme Schools/Joint Accreditation and Evaluation [59 kb Word] form is attached.

A sincere thank you again to the large number of schools and teachers in the region that have supported our work in recent months, by hosting workshops, releasing teachers as WSLs or in supporting our work with Universities and Governments.

Judith Guy, Regional Director

Email: ibap@ibo.org

News from Publications

Please read the latest publications news [93 kb, PDF].