Education, Sport & Culture announced on Wednesday that the IB would be paused due to the lack of take-up.
One of the 14 students signed up to the course, Ben Tooley, 16, who currently studies at Les Varendes, said that the decision to pause the course next year felt cruel.
‘I am really, really angry,’ he said.
‘This decision has not just been made without consultation, but without warning or any sort of communication.
‘We were told the day before sixth-form offers came out, which gives us absolutely no time to rethink what we might do, or to let people know just how angry this makes us feel.’
Ben wants to pursue a career as a psychiatrist and had planned to take chemistry, biology and psychology at higher level, and English, maths and German at standard level.
Unless he wants to change the course of his future and study a specialised course at The Guernsey Institute, his only choice is to take A-levels.
‘The only thing I see for my future is going to Sixth Form next year, so I’ll have to do A-levels because they don’t offer IB anywhere else,’ he said.
‘When you have been presented with this as an option, you’re told that doing IB instead of A-levels will open more doors for you, you make that choice for your future and then that’s ripped away, it feels really cruel.
‘IB wasn’t just an option on the table, it was promoted by lots and lots of teachers, and I was told that I should do IB, that I’d be great for it and it would help me get into university.’
Ben added that his teachers had sympathised with him over the decision, but said he now has to pick his A-level subjects.
Some of his classmates are discussing taking a year out of education because they only want to take the IB.
‘I’m very fortunate that I am predicted to pass all of my GSCEs, but I know someone who chose to study IB because it let them do maths and English at a standard level and take new subjects for more rigorous study at a higher level,’ he said.
‘They’ll now do subjects without English because they’re less strong in that subject and it will put them at a real disadvantage.’
Ben said that being a psychiatrist was still his goal and he aims to go to university to study medicine.
‘Those of us who were going to do IB would love to be able to sit down and talk with the politicians who made this decision, have a conversation and an explanation and hopefully find a solution.’
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