The International Baccalaureate (IB) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1968. The first programme offered by the IB was the Diploma Programme (DP) and this was the only IB programme in existence until 1994 when the Middle Years Programme (MYP) was developed. This was followed by the Primary Years Programme (PYP) in 1997 and more recently the Careers-related Certificate, introduced in 2011.

The visionaries of the IB DP created the program for internationally mobile families with children who needed to prepare for university and couldn’t necessarily do so through studying the local curriculum. The early programme consisted of a common pre-university curriculum and common external examinations for students studying in schools worldwide. At the heart of the programme has always been the motive to provide high-quality, international education for a better world.

Although at its outset, the first IB schools were predominantly private international schools, today over half of all IB World Schools are state schools. In 2011 there were 2,872 IB World Schools across 138 countries.