The 16th IB Day, hosted on 17 April 2021by TED Ankara College Foundation High School, featured IB Leaders, directors and educators of Turkish IB World Schools and delegates of higher-education institutions.
The theme was: "Embracing change whilst navigating the IB journey". The IB journey in Turkey has been a highly successful and impactful one so far—since 1994, the IB has authorized 83 schools teaching 109 programmes (with another 40 on the way to authorization), spread across the PYP, the MYP and the DP.
The first-ever IB day was held in 1999 to fortify strong relationships within the Turkish IB community and to exchange resources and ideas concerning IB programmes.
The Director of the IB World Schools, Adrian Kearney, was a keynote speaker at this year's event. In his speech, Mr Kearney pointed out the significance of embracing change, especially after the unpredictability of the past year's events that radically changed the world:
"By embracing change with the passion of our mission, and by navigating our journey with professionalism and integrity, our IB community will always be an agency of change in the world and—inspired and driven as we are by the values we all share—we are confident that our journey will take us to places of inspiration and renewal".
Mr Kearney highlighted the impact the IB education has on millions of students worldwide: "The IB believes in developing lifelong learners, and we prepare students to channel their learning and energy for the social and ethical impact they will have. And alongside the millions of IB students with their CAS and other projects, millions of IB alumni are living proof of the continuing impact and the daily differences the IB makes to the lives of their communities", said Mr Kearney.