City’s students will lose without IB program

Cutting costs shouldn’t cost learners, says Jonah Toth

For a landlocked province like Saskatchewan, the International Baccalaureate program connects our students to the world. It facilitates the exchange of knowledge and ideas with the mission of creating a more peaceful global community through education. This year, the IB celebrates its 50th anniversary, but in Regina, we mourn the loss of the IB Program in the Regina Public School Division.

In the late 1980s, it was a group of teachers, administrators and school board trustees who applied to the International Baccalaureate Organization to designate Campbell Collegiate an IB World School. They wanted to provide highly motivated students throughout Regina with the opportunity to study in an internationally recognized program with greater academic depth, and the opportunity to earn university credits. Fast-forward nearly 30 years and in February 2016, the Regina Public School Division announced plans to phase out the program, citing high costs and low enrolment.

As students, we would often complain about the academic rigour of the program, but we never doubted what an incredible opportunity it was. When the program was threatened, we raised awareness of the decision with local media, launched a petition than garnered nearly 1,600 signatures and met with various school board officials. Our efforts were to no avail. The Regina Public School Division had engineered a politically expedient means of ending the IB Program and was averse to criticisms from students, parents and teachers alike.

In our discussions, we were told by one school board official that “public education is a business.” Indeed, the IB Program is expensive, but cutting the program due to costs is prioritizing dollars and cents over educational outcomes. Research has repeatedly shown that alumni of the program achieve higher academic standings and are more successful in postsecondary studies. Government spending on education is one of the best uses of our tax dollars

... Surely budgets should allow for specialized programs for academic enrichment.

because a more educated society benefits us all. If the Regina Public School Division can fund specialized programs for athletics and the trades, surely budgets should allow for specialized programs for academic enrichment.

In place of IB, many Regina Public high schools now offer Advanced Placement courses. While both programs challenge students with greater academic rigour and the possibility of earning university credits, only the IB Program offers an international and more holistic approach to education. The IB strives to foster global citizens who are knowledgeable, inquisitive and caring through core programs that extend far beyond the classroom and require students to reflect on their place in their communities, both local and global.

Despite not being publicized and the geographical boundary restrictions on high school attendance, enrolment in the IB Program had been steadily increasing at Campbell Collegiate. While the Regina Public School Board cut the program, the Saskatoon Public School Division has become a champion of the IB and has added two new IB World Schools since 2010. North Battleford Comprehensive High School offers the IB Diploma Program.

Regina is now the only major city in Canada in which the public school system does not offer the International Baccalaureate program. This in itself should be an embarrassment for the Regina Public School Division.

This month, the 27th and final cohort of the Campbell Collegiate IB Program will graduate. Over the years, upwards of 2,600 students have participated in the program and gone on to study at some of the most prestigious universities around the world. They serve their communities as doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers and politicians and are part of an IB alumni community more than five million strong.

In my studies, I have met fellow IB alumni from Great Britain, India, Ghana and everywhere in between. We were connected by our concordant IB education, our shared experiences, and our common commitment to a better world. We celebrated our connection to a global community that, for students in the Regina Public School Division, has now been severed.