December 5, 2010- In corresponding with a fellow IB opponent from New Hampshire, the admirable Ann Marie Banfield, it occurred to me that IBO's Peace Education Agreement with UNESCO expires in 2010 (same day as the Bush tax cuts, how ironic). Anyway, I decided to snoop around UNESCO's site to see if anynew agreements had been drafted between IBO and UNESCO. There shouldn't be any agreements because IBO only works in a "consultant" capacity, according to Kool Aid drinking school board trustees.
Council in January 2010. Partnerships 55. Solid partnerships represented a sine-qua-non condition for the IBE work in 2009. At the time when the global financial meltdown impacted both developed and developing countries, the IBE was able to expand its collaborations and joined forces to achieve common objectives with a wide range of stakeholders, including bilateral donors, UNESCO Headquarters and Field Offices, UN Agencies, International NGOs, Ministries of Education and National Commissions, Universities and academic institutions. Existing collaborative working relations, many steaming from the work carried out for the 48th ICE and others from interest in the IBE programmes, were also maintained. This is the case of the GTZ within the project “Curricular Innovations, Poverty Alleviation and Peace Education in Sub-Saharan Africa” (see also para. 15). 56. New partnerships, based on Cooperation Agreements, were also established on specific themes and key priorities, including with : • The International Baccalaureate Office (IBO); • The Catholic University of Uruguay (UCU), for the piloting of the Resource Pack, with a view to offering a University diploma on curriculum development in the Latin American region; UNESCO/BIE/C.59/2 - Page 15 • The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies/INEE for the development of the General Notes on Quality Teaching and Learning in Emergencies with a focus on curriculum aspects; • UNICEF: to develop links with curriculum in emergency and post-conflict situations; • The World Council of Comparative Education Societies: the IBE Director has become a co-opted member of the Executive Board and will be the formal liaison for UNESCO.
Partnerships. Not "consultants". Partnerships. Shouldn't we as taxpayers have a real understanding as to what sort of "partnerships" the company we are sending our taxdollars to educate indoctrinate our children are partners with? IB is nothing more than social justice giving itself an educational label!
One way to tell exactly how phony a concept or organization is, is to check Wikipedia. Remember, these ideologues love to infiltrate sites that are monitored by Leftists to post their propaganda unchallenged. Take a look at the article on Comparative Education. What a joke! The article is completely uncited and should be wiped from Wikipedia. But there it is.
The New Propaganda - Comparative Education
This all ties very neatly together. What is the one thing that IB touts when selling its product? That it is an internationally recognized standard. We often hear helicopter parents whine that the U.S. is doing so poorly in education when compared with Norway or Lichtenstein or China. I have always wondered; Why would anyone care how they educate kids in China? It's a communist country. Why would we want to emulate them?
The 12th World Congress was held inHavana, Cubain 2004. WCCES also promotes research programmes involving scholars in various countries. Currently, joint research programmes focus on: theory and methods in comparative education, education of women and girls, teacher education,education for peace and justice, and other topics.
And other topics ... well, that sure sounds rigorous and specific! But all is not hugs and kisses for IBO internationally. Check outthis articleout of Lebanon which disses the IB Diploma in favor of the French Bacclaureate:
He said the French Baccalaureate (FB) was the only accredited certificate in Lebanon due to the historical relations between Lebanon and France.
“The French Baccalaureate is a special case. There are historical Lebanese-French ties … French missionaries were teaching French in Lebanon years before independence [in 1943] and thousands of Lebanese were educated in France during the Civil War,” Mneimneh added.The minister said there were no plans to treat the International Baccalaureate (IB) holders in the same manner.
This could explain why there are only11IBDP schools in all of France.
Public school administrators are quick to deny any sort of relationship between IB and the UN. But why? If IB supports the UN Charter and the educational philosophy of UNESCO in addition to receiving annual funding from the UN, what is the point of the denials?
From the Salt Lake Tribune: Paul Campbell, head of outreach for IB North America, said he's heard allegations about IB being anti-American before. He said, however, IB is neither anti-American nor connected to the U.N. Click HERE for article
It would seem that once again, IB has managed to influence the media by getting articles which reflect negatively on its program, removed from the Internet.
There's no nice way to put this. Mr. Campbell may have had a memory lapse. Not only is IB connected to the UN, it is officially recognized as an NGO (non-governmental organization) affiliated with the UN and has signed on to UNESCO's "Peace Education" initiative through the year 2010. Click HERE for document.
The IB in partnership with governments and inter-governmental organizations
UNESCO The IB has been recognized as a NGO of UNESCO since 1970 and currently has the status of "formal consultative relations as a network" with UNESCO. IB representatives participate regularly in UNESCO meetings and comment on UNESCO proposals in education. Some projects have received UNESCO funding—see Cambodia and Nigeria in the list of partnerships (126 kb, PDF) and exchanges with governments and inter-governmental organizations (IGOs).
So there you have it. IB partners with and has received funding from UNESCO. We invite readers to review IBO's infamous Myths vs. Facts document and decide for yourselves whether IBO is a bit confused about the definitions of myths vs. facts.
Note the reference to the UNESCO Manifesto 2000 in the Peace Education agreement. Who are some of the "signers" of this idealistic manifesto attempting to elicit world SOLIDARITY? Russia, Venezuela; but noticeably absent is the U.S.A. - Click HERE for Press Release.
The ties are undeniable. But IB will continue to try to obfuscate its very cozy UNESCO relationship very the simple FACT that it is objectionable to many Americans.
IBO Director Walker Blames Bush for UN Failures
Speaking of palling around, did you hear about the time former IBO Director General George Walker met with Kofi Annan (yes, the same UN Food for Oil Scandal Kofi Annan) to ask for money for an IB school in Baghdad? TruthAboutIB.com CANNOT make this stuff up, folks. Click HERE for the document which comes directly from the IBO's own website:
"I am not going to talk about the IB, you will be very relieved to hear! ...[snip]..... The lunch was held in the United Nations headquarters where the chairman was a very senior official in fact he was in charge of the UN's peace keeping operations and after lunch he showed me around the building allowing me to stand, I remember, on the podium of the General Assembly, on the very spot from which so many famous people have addressed the world. He also insisted on showing me the lounge outside the General Assembly where, he said, the real work of quiet and careful diplomacy took place over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.
He was a kind, gentle and clearly very astute man, a Ghanaian, and I expect by now you have guessed that his name was Kofi Annan. A few years later he became the UN's Secretary General and he is now in his second term of office and generally reckoned to be the most successful person ever to hold that challenging post. It is particularly sad, then, that it should be under Kofi Annan's leadership that the UN has been so abused, to the point where its future is seriously at risk. It is right to criticize the politicians?the combination of Bush, Blair, Chirac, Putin and Schröder has proved more than the UN can handle but I am also going to suggest that the diplomats must take some of the blame for the fiasco of the Security Council's handling of the Iraq crisis."
- George Walker, former IBO Director General
Two excellent articles by Mr. Tom DeWeese on the subject: