Singapore IB students outperform global counterparts at exams again

Amid a Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted learning, students from Singapore who sat the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma exams last November have managed to outshine their global counterparts again.

The Switzerland-based IB Organisation, which conducts the exams, said Singapore produced 55 of the 99 perfect scorers - more than half - this year.

Of the 2,228 students in Singapore who took the exams, 97.73 per cent passed. The global pass rate was 76.68 per cent, while the rate for the Asia-Pacific region was 91.83 per cent.

The average scores of Singapore students were also higher than those of their global and regional counterparts: 38.35 points against 29.81 and 34.83 respectively.

More than half - 50.65 per cent - of Singapore students also scored 40 points and above, out of 45. In comparison, 11.63 per cent of global students and 27.66 per cent of Asia-Pacific students did the same.

Yesterday, students from eight schools - including Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), School of the Arts (Sota) and St Joseph's Institution (SJI) - got their results.

All 443 students in ACS(I) - the first school here to offer the IB diploma since it was accredited in 2005 - passed the IB exam.

Their average score was 41.8 points, with 363 of them obtaining 40 points and above.

At Hwa Chong International School, 99.3 per cent of its 144-strong cohort passed, with an average score of 37. Six students obtained 44 points.

SJI said 99.3 per cent of its 272 students in the diploma programme passed, with an average score of 40.3.

There were 184 students who attained at least 40 points. SJI International saw all 183 in the cohort pass, with an average of 37.7 points.

Religious school Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah's first batch of 25 students in the diploma programme passed the exams as well.

The school's average score was 34.8 points.

Meanwhile, at Sota, all 157 students in the cohort passed too. Those in the diploma programme obtained an average score of 38.7 points.

The IB diploma programme is a two-year programme conducted at 27 institutions in total in Singapore. IB qualifications are recognised by universities across the globe.

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