Good description on IB program

father_ho

Dear parent,

If you are interested in IB course, you should revisit the program offered by the RTHK 飛 躍 學 堂 on the following link: http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio1/SmartParents/20070630.html
May be they still not yet upload it, but it is worth to listen and you will know more about what is IB and what's the difference between local and IB course. Also, you will know why DSS cannot offer all the student to study IB and lots of other concern you need to consider before making the decision. Lastly, you will hinted by Mr. dick what is the deficiency of local U. course.

cs1980

any summary?

father_ho

Dear parent,

Please correct me if I memorise wrongly. As far as I remember, Dr. Dick invited the Principal of St. Paul Co-ed as guest since their school will offer IB course in the upper secondary. St. Paul will split their student at the end of F.3 and provide one year transition period before they start the two year IBD program. During the discussion, Miss principal explained what is IB, in summary as below:
1. 6 area of study including two lang., math, science and cultural study.
2. 7 marks per area make up to total 42 marks plus 3 additional marks for thesis.
3. 2 years of studies which bounded to be small class by IBO.
4. Teachers are authorised tutor.
5. Future local 334 course actually like IB but not required to write so much thus Miss principal said they will retain student which just strong in experiement, cal. in local course while those like to expressing themself to IB course.
6. DSS still bounded by HK govt. that they need to provide local exam path for student so ST. Paul cannot provide all IB course.
7. IB subjects require extensive reading and writing as backup which means one cannot memorise and will not exist model answer for one to follow. Dr. Dick did said most of student in HK only focus on is there any hint for exam. starting from day one even at U. level.(What a horrible suitation and as an employer, you may ask did they learned?)
8. Local course still biased on either art or science selection while IB require the student study both so it may not suitable for all student.
9. IB course is costly and if one studied well, Miss principal view is there should not penality for studying in local U. since U.'s are trying their best to attract good student. If you hold HK local residency, local U will not bounded by the 10% rule.

That all I can remember, please supplement or correct me if I memorise wrongly.

cs1980

father ho,
thank you,
i can't download the rthk files, seems it is a good programme.

father_ho

I think RTHK's program will not be upload very  frequent. Anyway, I just brought a 100 DVD boxset by National Geographic which is incredible and you can take a look on the following link if you wish:

http://www.dvd-24online.com/index.php?gOo=goods_details.dwt&goodsid=158&productname=

To me it is one of the source to provide kids with extensive knowledge(from Nature, Space, Culture, History, Geo. etc) especially when they are bored by books. The DVD video actually attracted me indeed. I did tried BBC and Discovery before but seems a bit bored for young kids but not for NG.

Leechi

father-ho,

可否告知 IB 畢業後的出路, 是否要出外升學, 如入本地大學, 機會是否比較難入,近年IB 畢業生成績如何, 去向又如何?本人有意讓兒子選讀IB小學, 但認識不深, 現時還十五十六, 各下有何意見?

father_ho

Dear LeeChi,

Please beware that I am not an expert in IB but as far as I understand, those student score high in IB will not study in HK. For middle student, they may back to HK U's. For lower(weak) student, they may have difficulty in today's view. I am sure when our kids are at that stage, all local U's are hunting for student and they will find some way to path the potential consumer to them.

You cannot use the present HK score of IB exam as reference since nowadays, only the very,very top student have the chance to study under IB course(very few course provider) and of course most of them are study aboard(they give up the local U's offer, HK U's are too low ranking among world). You cannot denied HK's environment towards  technology, business, cultural etc are of lower grade in comparing with US.

The most important thing is whether you want your kid to learn something or memorising something and hoping one day he(she) will know what's that.

Dr.Cool

father_ho wrote,
HK U's are too low ranking among world

According to the THES "The World's Top 200 Universities 2006 "
University of HK (rank 33)
Chinese Univeristy of HK (rank 50)
HK Univeristy of Science and Technology (rank 58)
City University of HK (rank 154)

father_ho

Dear Dr.,

I am sure you should know how the International ranking are done and how much reliability of those rank you should refer. If HK U's student actually respected as reflected from the ranking, I think most of the HK top student should stay in HK. I dare not to look down on local student but when you are the insider, how can you trust them as you should know how their training and attitude to be. I am not to say all of them are as such but the atmosphere they create will influence others, that's the reason why HK student are so short sighted and materialistic which will limited their development. That's the point.

LadyWong

原文章由 father_ho 於 07-6-30 16:28 發表
Dear parent,

If you are interested in IB course, you should revisit the program offered by the RTHK 飛 躍 學 堂 on the following link: http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio1/SmartParents/20070630. ...

What do you think ……

Will St Paul co-educated successfully be authorized as IB diploma school in the coming future?

Do you know what others IB candidate schools are? Logos? GT school? Creative school? What do you think if they will get the chance being a IB diploma school?

By the way, for the IB diploma students, will they become the 10% non-JUPAS students for local U finally because they have no HKCEE result?

KenjiMa

原文章由 father_ho 於 07-7-1 12:00 發表
Dear parent,

Please correct me if I memorise wrongly. As far as I remember, Dr. Dick invited the Principal of St. Paul Co-ed as guest since their school will offer IB course in the upper secon ...

I have a few questions regarding IB course
1. Any other DSS schools will apply IB course in future?
2. What will be the fee for St. Paul IB course?
3. Do IB school use any local text books?
4. Some school like PLK CKY / Yew Chung only offer IB diploma. Their secondary school students can choose to take IGCSE.  What is IGCSE?

father_ho

In fact if school actually want to run IBD, there shouldn't be any difficulty except that they need to invest money for teachers teaching, restrict the class size, pay the audit fee etc. I think the most important part is to create the culture of learning as you can see the scope of IB actually too wide to be teached. If the student/teacher just as duck feeded style, I am pretty sure the school cannot be accepted by the IBO. One thing I dislike DSS to run IB is they cannot run the whole form/batch of student and drop the HKAL as restricted by ED. It will create another labelling effect as most of student know good IB result almost forsure one can get the ticket to the oversea top U's. Another concern is you can feel even St. Paul will need to implement one year for student to adapt to IB's concept of learnng, how can some DSS claim that their student will focus both on local exam and IB approach. Then should it be better for all the student to follow the IB approach? If those student not selected to IB course be inferior to others?

As Miss principal said IB student will disadvantage as compare to the local HKAL in entering local U's since the timing of result release but not the 10% bound since our kids are local resident. Even that and also I don't know my kids result will be good or not, I would rather my kids actually learn rather than memorise.

father_ho

No one can foresure school(s) will apply for IBD or not except they state it clearly in their study path. To my understanding, lots of DSS school are claimed to consider and I do believe eventually they will not do so since the cost of maintaining it is very high and school need to consider the acceptance of parent.

St Paul's fee as I remember is not too high, I think is in the order of 40-50K per year since they had solid backup from graduate.

I don't know what type of textbook they are using but certainly is not local one. (Local Publisher will not publish these since can't make money)

IGCSE just like the older days GCE but boardened the scope.

KenjiMa

原文章由 father_ho 於 07-7-4 22:42 發表
No one can foresure school(s) will apply for IBD or not except they state it clearly in their study path. To my understanding, lots of DSS school are claimed to consider and I do believe eventual ...

Thanks for your reply. I am thinking about applying IB school for my son but just worries
1. Tuition is expensive compare to other private school / DSS.
2. IB scope is so wide. Not sure the teacher can teach well. Seems not many experienced teacher in HK
3. Not sure if it need more parent involvement that traditional school ( especially students need to do project / reading etc. It will difficult for working moms to follow their homework)
4. Not sure how difficult to get in this type of school. What will these IB schools look for when they interview applicants?

Radiomama

father_ho,

Your info is so accurate!  Thank you.
For the IB school fee of St Paul Co-ed, it will be raised to
amount >$80000 per year.
Some of the DSS claimed that they would adopt the IB
program but the quaility would not be the same.  Just like the local curriculum, some schools can perform well but some do not.
At the same time, I don't trust the local new curriculum neither!  It's not easy to carry out.  That's why some parents will search for a new way out.
IB is good for some students but not suitable to all.  Therefore, parents should consider carefully.

mattsmum

quite a number of international schools are already IB schools for many years.

any victoria parents here who can expalin a bit more?

I sugguest parents to attend victoria's introduction day if they start to find out what IB is.

father_ho

原文章由 KenjiMa 於 07-7-4 23:08 發表


Thanks for your reply. I am thinking about applying IB school for my son but just worries
1. Tuition is expensive compare to other private school / DSS.
2. IB scope is so wide. Not sure t ...

Dear Kenjima,

1. You are right that school fee is very expensive when compare to other private or DSS school. We can do nothing but as hard working as we can
2. IB experienced teacher actually very hard to find now, you can only trust the school to send their staff attend the necessary training in future.
3. I would say for a working mom will find difficulty to follow kids progress since those school(s) usually not rely on exam marks. They just tell you what are your kids weakness and strength and find way(s) to improve it. Also, you cannot rely on private tutor since school emphasis are usually on extensive reading not on numerous homework.
4. Every school has different admission standard, but one thing normally they require is the language skill and don't be shy during interview.

cherubic

I don't think it is good for St Paul Co-ed to adopt IB programme for some of the upper secondary classes.  As far as I understand it, the traditional programme and IB programme are completely two different things, dramatically different approach of learning.  If a student, who has been using traditional approach learning from K1 to F.3, it will be very difficult for him/ her to change to different approach particularly in upper secondary classess given the volume of learning materials and the pressure of exams.  Furthermore, the IB programme requires a student to learn many subjects (wider compared to O-level and A-level).  Franky speaking, it is not easy.  However, I admit that it is good for some students, see examples in Lee Po Chuen.  

原文章由 Radiomama 於 07-7-4 23:16 發表
father_ho,

Your info is so accurate!  Thank you.
For the IB school fee of St Paul Co-ed, it will be raised to
amount >$80000 per year.
Some of the DSS claimed that they would adopt the IB  ...

Papa2000

As discussed in the radio programme, IB program offers an additional choice for students and the course itself has its own strength & weakness compared to the forthcoming new high school.  So, it is a matter of which one is a better choice that fits individual students' own circumstances (preference of subjects, learning style, finanical support, etc).  For my own case, my kid is still young and I could wait & see how well IB is implemented in HK.  

　

hjm

Dear all, my son will start IB this year with an IS...has been in a local school for primary but the admission officer told us he would benefit most with IB.  Well he is the type father_ho has briefly described, reads extensively and not shy (at all) at interview.  In fact these are the only 2 strong areas he has.....had been quite difficult fitting him into the traditional system....so that's whey we made this decision.