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International schools in Bolivia

Are you looking for an international school in Bolivia? 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 or US-style curriculum or the International Primary Curriculum.

Land-locked, remote and mineral-rich, the Plurinational State of Bolivia has a multi-ethnic population with the largest proportion of indigenous people of any Latin American country. It has 36 official languages, of which 35 are Amerindian. 

Bolivia hosts a small but well-established international school sector that is centred on its executive capital La Paz, constitutional capital Sucre, and primary commercial centre Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which is at the heart of the country’s tropical lowland region. 

The vast majority of international schools offer coeducational day schooling and most take children from pre-primary age to senior secondary level. Schools following the English national curriculum and US high school diplomas predominate but there are also institutions offering the French Baccalaureate and the German Abitur. 

There are three IB World Schools: American International School of Bolivia, which teaches in English, Colegio Alemán Santa Cruz, which is Spanish medium, and Saint Andrew’s School, which offers instruction in Spanish and English. They are all authorised to teach the IB Diploma Programme, while Saint Andrew’s also offers the Primary Years Programme. 

Accreditation and registration bodies that are active in Bolivia include Cognia, which was previously known as AdvancEd, and Cambridge Assessment International Education. 

Government education policy has been focused for decades on raising participation and battling illiteracy. The literacy rate among young people aged 15 to 24 is close to 100 per cent, while absenteeism among primary pupils fell more than 50 per cent from 2012 to 2020. However, the number of out-of-school teenagers soared by 241 per cent over the same period. 

Education is compulsory from age four to 17, with two years of nursery school followed by five years of primary schooling and five of secondary education. In 2020, net enrolment was 95 per cent for primary schools but only 78.1 per cent at secondary level.