International schools in Bahrain

Search for the best international schools in Bahrain; you can find a list of selected schools at the bottom of this page. Use the search filters to select only girls' or boys' schools, prep schools, senior schools or sixth forms; or you can search for schools that offer a particular curriculum, such as the International Baccalaureate, the UK national curriculum, a US-style model or the International Primary Curriculum. 

Competition can be intense for places at international schools in Bahrain, Asia’s third smallest state. Expatriates make up more than half the population of the island kingdom in the Persian Gulf and parents are advised to register children for places as early as possible.

Bahrain has the oldest public education system in the Arabian Peninsula and a wide range of international schools have been set up over the past 50 years in and around the capital Manama. The vast majority are coeducational day schools that teach in English. 

Most offer an American or British-style education, but there are also schools following French, Indian and other national education systems. A total of 16 IB World Schools offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma, but only two schools, Ibn Khuldoon National School and Naseem International School, are also authorised to teach the Primary and Middle Years Programmes.  

NIS and the Ibn Khuldoon National School, which offers the IB Diploma alongside the American high school diploma, are among a small number of international schools that teach in both English and Arabic. The Arabian Pearl Gulf School offers tuition in the two languages and French towards IGCSEs and the IB Diploma.

Four international schools, including NIS, are accredited by the Council of International Schools. Other accrediting bodies operating in Bahrain include the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.  

Public schools are free for Bahraini citizens, along with books, lunches and school transport, and education is compulsory from age six to 14. In 2019, the net enrolment rate was 96 per cent at primary level and 89 per cent at secondary level, according to UNESCO.

In 2021, 83 per cent of girls leaving school in Bahrain went on to college or university compared to 49 per cent of boys. Bahrain has four public universities and a range of private tertiary institutions and its residents can apply to Education City in neighbouring Qatar as well as universities around the world.

For more information about International Baccalaureate World Schools in Bahrain, see our sister website www.ibyb.org.