IB programme gets 18-year-old closer to theatre dreams

SINGAPORE — Rather than spending all day cooped up in classrooms, School of the Arts (SOTA) graduate Andre Chong, 18, decided to pursue his love for theatre through the International Baccalaureate (IB) career-related programme, which gave him time to hone his skills on the stage.

Mr Chong, who entered the programme in 2016 in his fifth year of study at SOTA, told TODAY that he also had the opportunity to gain experience outside of school and explore different aspects of theatre.

For example, apart from SOTA productions, he got to act in Michael Chiang’s Army Daze 2 last year alongside actors Hossan Leong and Chua Enlai.

“Within your schedule, there are pockets of empty slots where you can develop your portfolio, work on your thesis and reflective project, and hold rehearsals for solo shows,” he said.

It was stressful juggling school and external work, he said. But the programme shaped “the way I think critically as an aspiring artist”, he added.

On Friday (Jan 5), Mr Chong was among more than 16,000 IB students globally who received their results from the November 2017 sitting of the IB examinations. The IB Organisation declined to reveal the number of students from Singapore or how they performed. It told TODAY that it will “not be releasing specific data anymore”, after its data policy was updated in August last year. “The IB does not recommend nor encourage schools to use assessment results data for comparisons against other schools, areas or countries,” the organisation said. “Our IB World Schools are diverse and have varying contexts and socioeconomic positions, and we recognise that high quality teaching may not lead to the same outcomes across this global picture.”

Last year, it was announced that Singapore students made up 60.6 per cent of perfect scorers from the November 2016 sitting. Almost 2,000 students from Singapore sat for that session, achieving a pass rate of 97.32 per cent.

There are currently 24 schools in Singapore offering the IB diploma programme, including SOTA, St Joseph’s Institution (SJI), Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Singapore Sports School and Hwa Chong International School.

In a press release, SJI said that all 138 of their IB students who sat for the November session passed, achieving an average of 41 points. Five students achieved perfect scores of 45 points, 17 students scored 44 points, and half of the cohort scored 42 points or more.

All 117 of Hwa Chong International’s IB students — its largest cohort ever — also passed, achieving an average of 37.2 points. Two students scored a perfect 45, while about one-third of the cohort scored more than 40 points. One in three students attained the IB Bilingual Diploma.

At SOTA, 131 students sat for the November session and achieved a 100 per cent pass rate, with more than four out of five students scoring 35 points and above. Twenty-four students under the IB career-related programme, including Mr Chong, also received their results on Friday. SOTA principal Lim Geok Cheng said: “We are very happy with the results, but more importantly, we are proud of our graduates and delighted that they are able to go on to pursue their passions.”

The IB career-related programme was developed for students who want to deepen their learning in a specific career. It requires students to take two IB diploma programme courses, four core requirements and a career-related study.

Mr Chong said he has been involved in theatre since primary school, when he landed a role in a Wild Rice Productions play at the age of 11. Under the IB career-related programme, he took in-depth theatre modules, and studied his mother tongue, Chinese.

As part of his reflective project – one of his core requirements – he explored the area of disability arts in a 4,000-word essay in an effort to answer one question: Whether it is all right to cast non-disabled actors in disabled roles.

For that, he spoke to industry professionals such as Pangdemonium artistic director Tracie Pang, and participated in workshops for people with disabilities, such as Down’s Syndrome and autism.

“You don’t really see much representation (in disability arts in Singapore), and in terms of how advanced we are in dealing with the social stigma of persons with disabilities, I think we are still far behind, but we’re catching up slowly,” he said.

After serving National Service for the next two years, Mr Chong plans to apply to either the Victorian College of the Arts in Australia, or LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore to pursue his passion.

While he has not “gotten much flak” from his friends or loved ones for going into the arts, he said he understands if young people are afraid of doing the same.

He added: “Many of my mentors say: Just do what you want and are passionate about; money will come in later… I find myself happier doing something that requires a little more risk, and I feel okay not having stability.”