CBSE or IB?
The answer to these questions is unanimous. Whenever I talked to experts or experienced teachers, they gave the same answer to the question. It’s easy to understand the difference and then make the correct choice. (For the rest of the discussion, ‘IB’ represents any international board e.g. IB, IGCSE, AS/A Level, American board etc. and ‘CBSE’ represents any other Indian board e.g. ICSE, ISC, State Board etc.)
The choice of CBSE (or ICSE, ISC, State Board etc.) or IB (or IGCSE or AS/A Level or American Board etc.) depends on certain facts and a few other choices. Facts are whether you are an affluent person, you and your children are US citizens or Indian citizens etc. Other choices are whether you want your child to stay in India for a long term or stay outside India, whether you want your child to go through an extremely tough competition or you want him to have a smooth two years of 11th and 12th standard and then simply go to a good college abroad etc.
We will discuss all the factors one by one in detail in the decreasing order of importance First of all, if someone cannot afford spending Rs. 25-30 L (approx. $35000) during 4 years of school education (9th to 12th standard), and then 2-3 Cr (approx. $300000) later for UG studies, then IB (or any other international board) is not an option. I am sorry to be blunt, however the message has to be loud and clear. Unfortunately IB costs more, much more than Indian board education. I won’t simply say that IB schools are very expensive, perhaps they give value for that money spent. Same is true for universities abroad. The cost of graduation is almost 10 times there than in India, however they give value for that money paid. Usually it’s difficult to go to an Indian college for graduation after IB, hence parents first need to spend a big amount for 9th to 12th education and then even bigger amount for graduation.
Let’s assume that a person is rich enough to afford IB (or IGCSE or AS/A Level or American Board etc.) The next question is whether you want your child to stay in India or stay abroad for most of his life. I am not starting a new debate here, whether living in India is better or living abroad is. However, selecting one out of the two options helps in deciding whether to choose IB or CBSE. It’s difficult to go to a good Indian college after IB and it’s difficult to go abroad after CBSE. Certainly I don’t mean it’s totally impossible. Moreover, it’s easy to go to an Indian college after CBSE and it’s easier to go abroad after IB. The two paths are totally different. A student can pursue IB, then apply to some good colleges abroad and complete his graduation from one of them and then get a job abroad. He can stay abroad thereafter. CBSE is aligned to Indian competitive exams. A student can appear in these exams after CBSE, then he can qualify for one or more of these exams, get a good college, go there and complete his graduation from IIT or NIT etc. and finally get a job in India.
It is important to note that the two paths are completely different, yet they merge at some point. Post graduation abroad is one of the popular junctions. People who want their child to stay abroad can ask him/her to complete post graduation from abroad. It’s not very expensive, getting financial aid in one or other form is easy. After post graduation from a good college abroad, it does not matter which curriculum the student pursued in school and where he/she went for graduation. In fact, I personally feel that graduation from an Indian college and post graduation abroad is the best combination. It is economical, it gives opportunities to students for being very competitive as they might have gone to an Indian college after a tough competition and it retains both the options for students, to stay in India or stay abroad.
Now, let’s assume that a person is rich enough to afford IB (or IGCSE or AS/A Level or American Board etc.) and he doesn't care if the child should stay in India or outside. Let’s say he is indifferent to living in India or abroad. Then the next question is what you want for your child. If you want your child to enjoy the subjects and not get lost in the space of theoretical knowledge then IB is the perfect option. IB gives students a highly application oriented knowledge, tries to connect the subjects with day to day experiences and real life examples at all levels. On the other hand, CBSE (and later competitive exams) are quite theoretical, they maintain a pretty high difficulty level and cover a broad list of topics with less focus on real life applications. If you want your child to become very competitive, to learn problem solving skills, to learn very difficult concepts which in turn develop a habit of surviving in very challenging environments then CBSE is the perfect option. IB syllabus is small, however it is updated regularly. IB focuses on what is going on in the world and it discards anything which is obsolete and not practical. On the other hand, Indian competitive exams maintain a very high difficulty level as they have to assess almost a million students every year. In a nutshell, if you want a smooth, joyful journey of learning for your child, IB is the best path. On the other hand, if you want to keep your child in a highly competitive environment and want him to learn how to survive in the most difficult situations then CBSE is the best path.
Parents should also consider their child’s inclination towards studies while deciding the appropriate curriculum (or path) for him/her. Some children might find the CBSE path very hard and some might find IB not so challenging. Parents can meet expert consultants to choose the appropriate path too. Experts are available in Ixpoe, Onlinetutor4all (https://onlinetutor4all.com)
and similar institutes. In fact, these institutes can help in the entire academic journey of the child. For example, Ixpoe has been giving these services to parents and students for more than 8 years. They help to choose the right curriculum, help in smooth transition from CBSE to IB, prepare the students for SAT, ACT etc. and finally coach students for IB subjects.
The next and the least important factor is citizenship. If the family or only the child is a US citizen, it helps a lot in future if you want to stay outside India. IB is better then. Admission for students not having Indian passports in Indian college is a bit complicated and also expensive. However it’s not a big deal. So citizenship is not a very important factor.
Last but not the least, the decision of choosing IB or CBSE for the child is extremely important for the child as well as parents. The parents must consider all the factors while deciding the path for their child. Neither IB nor CBSE is good or bad for your child. It is all about which one suits you and your child most. It’s like marrying a girl/boy wh