Covid-19 (Novel Coronavirus)
Dear Colleagues,
This is the fourth in a series of communications to universities and colleges regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students completing qualifications with the International Baccalaureate.
On Sunday 22nd March 2020 we wrote to universities and colleges to inform them that the May 2020 examinations for the IB Diploma Programme and IB Career-related Programme will not be held in any country.
We have now written to IB World Schools to ask them to send all items of internal assessment (coursework) to the IB. Internal Assessments, in other years, are marked by schools, with external moderation completed by sampling. However, in these most exceptional of circumstances as just one element of our quality assurance process, we will be requiring every internal assessment, for every subject where there would normally be an exam, for every candidate, to be externally marked by our highly-trained and professional IB Examiners, who would in other years be marking the examinations.
We have also asked schools to send us predicted grades for every subject, for every candidate. We have asked them to provide us with the information by 20th April, so that we are able to continue to aim for a 5th July results release date.
In order to award our Diploma and Certificates, we will be using a vast range of historical assessment data to ensure that we follow a rigorous process of due diligence, in what is a truly unprecedent situation. We will be undertaking significant data analysis from previous exam sessions, individual school data, subject data, as well as comparative school-level data.
Our students, their well-being and their progression in future stages of life continue to be at the forefront of our thinking as we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We will continue to keep you updated as decisions are taken over the coming weeks and months.
We thank you once again for your continued support of our students during these most difficult of circumstances and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us at recognition@ibo.org.
Further FAQs on this topic can be found here.
If you have colleagues who would like to receive these communications directly then please encourage them to sign up to the IB HE Newsletter.
Best Wishes,
Paul Teulon
Head of Global Recognition
International Baccalaureate