Why the IB funding cut is a step backwards

The Department for Education’s (DfE) decision to scrap funding for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in state schools from 2026-27 sends a troubling message about educational opportunities in England.

What the Funding Cut Means

Twenty state schools currently receive £2,400 per student to offer the IB Diploma Programme. Without this support, around 5,000 students may lose access to an internationally recognised qualification that keeps doors open rather than closing them at 16.

The timing couldn’t be worse. As sixth-form open evenings unfold across the country, families are discovering their options have suddenly narrowed. The IB offers something fundamentally different from A-levels. Students study six subjects until 18, maintaining breadth across languages, sciences, humanities and arts – as well as core that supports community engagement, critical thinking, and personal wellbeing. This approach matters because young people need to be ready for an uncertain future and not simply qualified in a narrow range of traditional subjects.

Why the IB Matters

Consider what early specialisation means in practice. The traditional A-level route requires students to choose three or four subjects at 16, potentially locking them into (and sometimes out of) career pathways at an unreasonably young age. Wider programmes, like the IB Diploma, keep possibilities alive. A student interested in medicine continues studying history. A future engineer maintains economics. When careers transform, and they will, these students will possess the intellectual agility to pivot and adapt. They discover unexpected strengths, develop resilience to succeed, and draw connections across wider fields of knowledge. That’s what students need as they move into the workplace and the world, and that’s the opportunity pupils in the state sector will be losing.

The DfE claims this change will save money while focusing on “subjects that lead to good jobs.” Yet the definition of a “good job” is constantly evolving. Technology companies seek people who understand human behaviour alongside code. Healthcare demands data literacy paired with empathy. Finance requires cultural awareness as much as numerical skills. The artificial separation between arts and sciences at 16 no longer reflects what actually happens in the workplace.

What’s particularly troubling is the impact on educational equality. For more than fifty years, the IB has been available in both state and private sectors offering ambitious students from all backgrounds access to a rigorous international curriculum. The government’s savings will be negligible but the cost to social mobility could prove substantial. State school students deserve the same opportunities to develop the cross-disciplinary thinking that universities and employers increasingly value.

The IB is Recognised World-Wide

The world awaiting our children demands intellectual flexibility, cultural competence, and genuine adaptability. For a government that supports the idea of opportunity for all, and for an island country that literally depends on its connections with the wider world to survive, it just doesn’t make sense (unless it’s another ill-considered stab at perceived elitism in education, alongside an unspoken nervousness about globalisation and its political repercussions). Meanwhile, more than forty percent of IB World Schools worldwide are in the state sector (89% in the US are public schools), and about half of all DP graduates come from government-run schools.

For any parent of a child at state school interested in the IB contact your MP immediately. Explain that this isn’t about preferring foreign qualifications over British ones but about preserving choice in an education system that narrows too early. For parents of children with the means to attend an independent school then this change does not affect you, but it does mean only independent schools like the three ACS International schools in and around London that offer the IB are an option. The IB Schools and Colleges Association continues negotiating with government and parent voices will help strengthen their position considerably.

The world awaiting our children demands intellectual flexibility, cultural competence, and genuine adaptability. Removing IB funding from state schools will weaken those children’s preparation for tomorrow’s opportunities.