IBE History, 1925-1969

100 Years of Global Leadership in Education

The IBE was established in 1925, as a private, non-governmental organisation, by leading Swiss educators, to provide intellectual leadership and to promote international cooperation in education.

Unlike other international organizations, the IBE survived the Second World War.

EARLY YEARS

The IBE was born from the intellectual discourse of leading thinkers and architects of the progressive education movement known as the New Education, including Edouard Claparède and Adolphe Ferrière.

The International Bureau of Education was created in Geneva in 1925 as a private non-governmental organization with the particular help of leading Swiss psychologists and pedagogues Pierre Bovet, Edouard Claparède, and Adolphe Ferrière. Pierre Bovet became the IBE’s first director, assisted by Adolphe Ferrière and the Swiss progressive educationalist and peace activist Elisabeth Rotten. The French educator, translator, and children’s book author Marie Butts served as the IBE’s first General Secretary, from 1926 to 1953. Edouard Claparède headed a committee of patronage that counted among its members a variety of famous personalities such as Albert Einstein, Emilie Gourd (Secretary of the International Alliance for Women’s Votes), and Albert Thomas (Director of the International Labour Office). The IBE’s founders adhered to the ideas of the New Education movement, for which Geneva was an important center. This school of thought was inspired in part by Swiss philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, putting the needs of the child at the center.

IBE Milestones (1925-1969)

1925

The IBE is created as a private Swiss association

During its first years, the IBE organized courses, study visits, exhibitions, and conferences, and gathered and disseminated information on all matters related to education.

1929

The IBE becomes the first intergovernmental organization in the field of education

Jean Piaget, the eminent Swiss psychologist, is appointed director, with Pedro Rossello, a Spanish educationist, as his deputy. Together, they led the IBE for almost forty years.

1934

First session of the International Conference on Public Education (ICPE)

The IBE starts convening sessions of the International Conference on Public Education (ICPE) through the intermediary of the Swiss Federal Council (an arrangement that continued until 1946), inviting ministries of education to present reports on recent educational developments in their countries.

1939–45

Service of Intellectual Aid to Prisoners of War (SIAP)

During the World War II years, the IBE concentrates its efforts on the Service of Intellectual Aid to Prisoners of War (SIAP), collecting and distributing books to study groups in the prison camps. By the end of the war the IBE has distributed almost 600,000 books.

1947

The newly established UNESCO and the IBE join forces

Between 1946–1968, the IBE and UNESCO establish closer links of cooperation with comparative education centers worldwide. They also play a catalytic role in the creation of regional societies and an international council of comparative education.

1952

Women and education

The International Conference on Public Education (ICPE) addresses the issue of women’s access to education.

1956

Primary school curriculum

The International Conference on Public Education (ICPE) discusses issues related to the development of the primary school curriculum.

1969

Integration within UNESCO

The IBE becomes an integral part of UNESCO, as an international center of comparative education, with a mandate of pursuing research particularly in the area of comparative education and maintaining educational documentation and information services.

1925
The IBE Secretariat in 1925, with Pierre Bovet (front row, left), Director, and Marie Butts (front row, center), Secretary-General. Bovet was very involved in the progressive education movement, which defended the principle of individuals participating actively in their own education.
1930
The IBE Secretariat in 1930, with Jean Piaget (front row, center), Director; Pedro Rosselló (front row, center right), Deputy Director; and Marie Butts (front row, center left), Secretary-General. Piaget and Rosselló presided over the IBE during the 40 years of its existence as an independent intergovernmental organization on education.
1937
In July 1937, in a plenary session of the sixth ICPE at the Palais Wilson, delegates deliberated on working conditions in the teaching profession, with an emphasis on the remuneration of primary and secondary teachers. This led to it adopting a charter on the status of teachers – a precursor of UNESCO’s current recommendation on the conditions of the teaching profession.

THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

With the adoption of new statutes in 1929, the IBE transformed into the first intergovernmental organization exclusively active in the field of education. It soon became an internationally recognized clearinghouse for information in this field, beyond its initial focus on New Education.

In order to achieve this mission, its new director Jean Piaget, Professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva; and deputy director Pedro Rosselló, Catalan lecturer of comparative education, organized yearly international conferences – the International Conference on Public Education (ICPE). The IBE also regularly sent surveys to national ministries of education and published the results annually. Furthermore, the IBE developed a library and a permanent exhibition on education themes. During the Second World War, the IBE adopted a humanitarian role, by providing educational books and other material to prisoners of war around the world.

Unlike other international organizations, the IBE survived the second world conflict and convened, already in 1946, a new International Conference on Public Education (ICPE). The end of the war also marked the founding of the UN system, and, in the field of education, of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Due to their compatible agendas, the two organizations would collaborate closely over the years. In 1947, the two international organizations agreed that UNESCO would have access to all IBE resources and that they would organize the International Conference on Public Education jointly. In 1952, a joint commission was established to broaden cooperation. As a UN agency, UNESCO disposed of much vaster resources than IBE and in order to assure its viability and greater coordination between the two bodies, the IBE requested integration into UNESCO. This merger was carried out through an agreement in 1968. The IBE remained in Geneva and retained its intellectual and functional autonomy, but also became an integral part of UNESCO. Within the latter, the IBE specialized in reforming and renewing educational content by becoming, in 1999, an international center of excellence in curriculum. In this capacity, it continues to provide guidance to UNESCO Member States and to curriculum specialists around the world.

1939
In 1939, at the start of World War II, the IBE established the Service of Intellectual Aid to Prisoners of War (SIAP). By the end of 1945, more than half a million books, worth more than 2 million Swiss francs, were distributed to prisoners of war across European countries. The service grew exponentially, as if to defy the war itself. By July 1940, 1,000 books had been shipped. A year later, that figure was nearly 50,000, and by July 1942, it had reached 200,000.
1947
For the first time in history, the IBE jointly convened the tenth session of the International Conference on Public Education (ICPE) with UNESCO on July 14 to 19, 1947. This session of the ICPE advocated for the free provision of school supplies, and physical education in secondary schools, which should be compulsory and taught by qualified staff.
1949
Jean Piaget (left), Director of the IBE, in conversation with Agustín Nieto Caballero (right), Founder of the Gimnasio Moderno (Bogotá, Colombia), at the 12th ICPE, July 1949. The conference made recommendations on the teaching of reading; the introduction to natural science in primary schools; and the teaching of geography as a means of developing international understanding.