When Chiara Schwarz got to year 10, she had a decision make: stay at Killara High School and do the HSC, or move to a private school so she could sit the International Baccalaureate.

In the end, the choice was easy. She left the public school system and enrolled at St Andrew's Cathedral School, one of 17 independent schools in NSW that gives year 11 and 12 students the choice of doing the IB instead of the HSC.

"I really like my old school, I just really wanted to do the IB," said Chiara, 17, now doing year 12.

Director-general of the IB program Siva Kumari is in Australia this week and will talk to the NSW government about allowing state schools to start offering the IB, as governments in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia have already done.