The importance of the International Baccalaureate for the present and the future

The director general of the International Baccalaureate, Siva Kumari, speaks from the perspective of what is working in education. To this end, she presents the work carried out by the International Baccalaureate. Its philosophy focuses on an international education whose top priority is to train its students to be better people and critical thinkers. She believes that we need to take advantage of the vast array of possibilities that this hyper-connected digital world offers, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that surrounds us. Meanwhile, SkySchool co-founder Polly Akhurst highlights the importance of community service as an element of the IB curriculum, as it instils the human side so necessary in today’s world. The director of the Vienna International School, Peter Murphy says that, from his personal experience throughout his professional career, one of the main challenges facing education is political intervention. What he finds interesting about the International Baccalaureate is that it aims to be an international framework without being governed by a single national perspective, rather taking best practices from the global level and offering great opportunities for young people to discover their passion and to experience a wide range of curricular disciplines that make them well prepared for the future. The Andalusian Minister of Education, Javier Imbroda, is committed to depoliticising education and to the international baccalaureate in Andalusia. Its main lines of action include exploring new ways to ensure that both young people and teachers are trained in the best possible way in this global world. He believes that the time for transferring knowledge to information has come to an end and that the focus is now on discovering young people’s talent and enabling them to develop their skills. Two of its top priorities are, on the one hand, vocational training and, on the other hand, vulnerable students, since it is precisely in educational inequalities that social inequalities are born.