IB 2021 results: Schools in UAE start receiving student scores after exams were cancelled

Dubai: Schools in the UAE on Monday started receiving results for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP).

Students will be able to access their individual results online on Tuesday, joining more than 170,000 peers globally who had registered for the May 2021 session under IB.

As in 2020, students in the UAE and many other countries this year did not sit the IB exams because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, schools here followed the IB’s “non-exam route” using a combination of internal assessment coursework and teacher-predicted grades for the results.

Globally, the average diploma score for the May 2021 session is 33.02 points, up from 31.34 in May 2020. The maximum diploma score under IB is 45 points.

In the UAE, there are around 50 IB World Schools. In 2020, some 2,200 students in the country received their IB results. Last year, the UAE’s average DP score of 32.80 surpassed the global average, with a pass rate of 93.77 per cent.

The UAE’s biggest school group, GEMS Education, recorded the best-ever IB results in its 62-year history, performing above international averages. A total of nearly 600 GEMS Grade 12/Year 13 students were this year candidates for IB Diploma. Their average point score was 36 this year, compared to the international average of 31.30 in 2020, with a pass rate of 99.5 per cent, above the world average of 85.2 per cent.

A total of 10 students across the GEMS network achieved the highest point score possible of 45, including three from GEMS Wellington International School, two each from GEMS World Academy — Dubai, GEMS International School — Al Khail and GEMS Dubai American Academy, and one student from GEMS Modern Academy.

GEMS World Academy Dubai and GEMS Wellington International School also recorded average scores of 38 points, closely followed by GEMS Modern Academy with 37 points and GEMS International School — Al Khail with 36 points.

Sidharth Hariharan, student and valedictorian, GEMS Modern Academy, said: “I’ve just received my IB Diploma results, and I am extremely glad to share that I got a perfect score of 45. My plans for the future are to study pure mathematics at Imperial College London, and hopefully I will pursue a career in academia, going into research and teaching mathematics.”

Gauri Menon, also from GEMS Modern Academy, who scored 44, said: “I’m planning to attend University of Toronto in Canada to study Life Sciences and specialise in molecular biology. I’m so pleased to get these results. I’ve had two days of absolute sleepless nights, and I’m glad that the results reflect the work and commitment that I’ve put in. It was nerve-racking but I was happy to see my friends get their results as well and share this happiness.”