This year and in years prior, there has been a strikingly large disparity between the amount of students in different IB classes, with some having far too many students and others having far too few. This is not, however, because we do not have enough students to evenly fill the classes offered, such as Theory of Knowledge, IB Biology, and IB European History. On the contrary, we have many students partaking in the Diploma programme, as well as people incorporating select IB classes into their schedule. Even still, the numbers of students per class still seem to drastically vary. Why does this continue?
For Juniors in the programme, there are two periods of Theory of Knowledge, or ToK. In period 1, there’s 38 kids in the class, contrasting to the 7th period, which has a grand total of 4 students. This shows that there is clearly a scheduling issue within the programme. Many students take their 6th subject during 7th period, or another required IB class that is not able to be changed due to demand or other reasons. So there is not a lot of flexibility for IB diploma students in particular to change their classes.
This creates an inadequate learning experience for both sides. It is unfair for a class that is primarily based on debating and ideas to have around 1/6th of the amount of students in the other class. We also see this issue within IB Bio, with both classes differing by around 10 students. Something in the scheduling process needs to change to benefit both the students and the teachers.
