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 13 IB World Schools offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma, but only one, Naseem International School, is 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.

Capital School, Bahrain, which follows the English national curriculum, was set up in 2015 after a sister school was launched in Dubai in 2014. The Bahrain school, which currently offers kindergarten and primary school classes, is due to open its secondary section in September 2018. It plans to offer IGCSEs and A-levels.

Three international schools, including NIS, are accredited by the Council of International Schools, while Ibn Khuldoon is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and 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 2006, the secondary gross enrolment rate stood at 99 per cent of the age group, with girls slightly outnumbering boys, according to UNESCO. 

By 2015, 57 per cent of girls leaving school in Bahrain went on to college or university compared to 25 per cent of boys. Bahrain has five 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.