International schools in Iran

Are you looking for an international school in Iran? Search for the best international schools in Iran; you can find a list of selected schools at the bottom of this page.

The easing of tensions between Iran and Western powers under President Hassan Rouhani has created positive conditions for growth in the country’s small international school sector, which is centred on the capital Tehran.

Iran has six schools that are authorised to teach International Baccalaureate programmes as well as embassy schools offering the curriculums of France, Germany, Japan, Pakistan and India, with the latter two now catering to children of diverse nationalities. 

Three schools are authorised to deliver the IB Diploma, and one of them, the large Mehr-e-Taban International School in the south-western city of Shiraz, which has separate campuses for boys and girls, teaches all three stage of the IB curriculum.

The British School Tehran was shut down after protesters stormed the British Embassy in 2011, following the imposition of sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme. The French and German schools, which are based within the same embassy precincts, also closed following the incident but have since reopened. 

The German Embassy School went on to launch an English-medium international section in the buildings of the British school, which gained approval in 2018 to offer the IB primary years programme.

Education is compulsory from age six to 16 and free in state schools, which are single-sex and teach in Persian. Children attend primary school up to age 12 and lower secondary school from age 12 to 16. 

Upper secondary education lasts two years and is divided into vocational and academic tracks, with students who pass the high school diploma allowed to take the Konkur, the national university entrance exam. Iran has many universities and vocational institutes.