International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is part of the GIIS’ offering of international curricula since many years and the course is opted by a large number of students who are looking for an intensive middle year programme that provides a solid foundation for higher studies. GIIS is one of the few international schools in Singapore that offers IGCSE and also Cambridge Lower Secondary Programme which is a precursor for the extensive IGCSE course.
What is IGCSE?
International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is a broad curriculum that is based on the British curriculum (GCSE) and modified by schools worldwide to suit the local requirements and environment. The uniqueness of the IGCSE curriculum is in providing a broad range of subjects, from which the schools can choose and design the combination of subjects that they want to offer to their students.
Why choose IGCSE curriculum?
GIIS is a multiple curricula school that offers a great mix national and international curricula like CBSE, IB PYP, IBDP, Cambridge lower Secondary and IGCSE. Due to the availability of multiple streams, parents and students often struggle while choosing the best curriculum or framework that will help their children achieve good hold of academics as well as skills to support them in higher studies.
Here are the highlights of IGCSE that will help parents evaluate and plan the future course of study for their children if they opt for the curriculum.
Highlights of IGCSE
IGCSE students adapt quickly when moving out
The IGCSE educational framework is based on international standards that offers a huge benefit to expats who might move to other countries or back to home country after sometime. The choice of subjects and the elaborate content structure of IGCSE allows the students to adapt to other courses in schools worldwide smartly and quickly. Whenever the student is moving from one curriculum or educational framework to other there is bound to be some skill gap. However, the wide scope of IGCSE allows this skill gap to be minimum if the student moves on to any other course.
IGCSE prepares well for other international curricula
IGCSE serves as a great preparatory ground for advanced international educational framework like IBDP. The application based and hands-on approach to learning, prepares the students to handle independent learning in courses like IB Diploma Programme. IGCSE students find it easier to cope with the challenges involved in advanced maths and science at the higher grades. Also, Cambridge qualifications are accepted and valued by many leading universities and employers around the world.
IGCSE encourages logic-based learning
The USP of IGCSE curriculum is to encourage logic-based learning among students. It develops problem solving and investigative skills rather than rote learning skills. These learning principles are well-aligned with global standards of teaching and learning and futuristic in approach. IGCSE students are more adaptive and exposed to global ways of learning, making their transition into international universities easier and faster.
Cambridge IGCSE helps improve performance of students by developing skills in creative thinking, enquiry and problem solving.
IGCSE caters to different strengths
IGCSE caters to different levels of abilities by offering the choice of core and extensive. Students can choose to study either core level or extended level of certain subjects which means they can choose to study the subject at a basic level or at a specialised level. IGCSE recognises the fact that every student will not have similar interest in all the subjects. Aligned with the same view, it offers the flexibility to the students to just have the overview or do an in-depth specialisation in the subject.
There are only a few schools in Singapore that offer a great and robust programme for IGCSE. The results have consistently been great and our IGCSE students have made a mark in the international universities in various fields of study ranging from science to humanities. Read more about the IGCSE Programme at GIIS here.
