Guides
The Bali Education Guide for Expat Families
A practical guide to education in Bali for expat families: how curricula compare, how to choose a school and how to keep learning on track through a move.
The short answer
Bali offers international families a genuine choice: established international schools teaching IB, Cambridge, Australian and other curricula, alternative and Montessori settings, and a large homeschool and worldschool community. Most families land well when they choose the curriculum before the school, verify every practical detail directly, and support the first term deliberately.
This guide is for families newly arrived in Bali or planning the move. It is neutral: we tutor students from many of the island’s schools and recommend none over another.
How education in Bali works
Indonesia runs a national curriculum, Kurikulum Merdeka, across its public and national private schools. Alongside it sits a long-established international school sector, concentrated in the south of the island and around Ubud, teaching foreign curricula to a largely expatriate student body.
International schools in Bali set their own admissions, calendars and fees. There is no central register parents can rely on for comparisons, which is why direct verification with each school matters so much here.
Term dates differ between schools: some follow the northern-hemisphere August to June year, others the southern-hemisphere January to December year. The calendar you choose affects when your child can start, and when moving between systems later is easiest.
Curricula you will meet
| Curriculum | Structure | Typical families |
|---|---|---|
| International Baccalaureate (IB) | Primary Years (3 to 12), Middle Years (11 to 16), Diploma (16 to 19); six subjects plus core components at the end | Internationally mobile families wanting one framework across countries |
| Cambridge and British-pattern | Primary and Lower Secondary stages, then IGCSE at around 16 and A-Level after | Families expecting future moves within British-system schools |
| Australian Curriculum | The national Australian framework, Version 9.0 in the primary and junior years, with familiar term dates | Families planning to return to Australia |
| US-pattern and online schools | Credit-based programmes with continuous assessment, sometimes delivered through accredited online providers | Families heading for US universities or needing flexibility |
| Montessori and alternative | Child-led, mixed-age, project-rich settings with lighter formal assessment | Younger children and families valuing independence and pace |
| Kurikulum Merdeka | The Indonesian national curriculum | Indonesian families and long-term residents |
Choosing a school
Work backwards from your likely destination at your child’s next transition point, then shortlist schools teaching the curriculum that serves it. Visit with your child wherever possible, and ask for the full fee schedule in writing: registration, capital levies, transport, lunches and trips can add substantially to the headline figure.
Ask how the school supports mid-year joiners from other curricula, how learning support is organised, and how it communicates with parents. The answers tell you more than the prospectus.
Ask also about class sizes in your child’s actual year group rather than a policy maximum, and about teacher tenure. A school where staff stay for years offers a different experience from one with heavy annual turnover.
Homeschooling and worldschooling
Homeschooling is formally recognised in Indonesian law in single-family, multi-family and community-based forms. How the rules apply to foreign families on temporary residence permits is not clearly documented, and expat families in Bali commonly homeschool informally or through accredited online schools. Verify your own situation rather than relying on forum advice.
The island’s homeschool and worldschool community is one of the most active in the region, particularly around Ubud. Families who do it well treat community activities as a complement to a structured academic programme, not a replacement for one.
If you are weighing homeschooling against school, consider the length of your stay. Families settled for years often build a full homeschool programme; families here for a season frequently find a short school placement, or a tutor-anchored homeschool routine, kinder than building a full curriculum from scratch.
Keeping continuity through a move
The academic risk in any move is the gap between syllabuses: maths topics sequenced differently, sciences separated earlier or later, writing conventions the new school assumes. Map those gaps before or just after arrival, in writing, for each subject.
Then hold one steady anchor through the first term: a weekly tutor, a fixed family study hour, or both. Children settle socially at their own pace, but academic drift in the first term is cheap to prevent and expensive to repair.
Keep records from the old school organised and portable: reports, marked work samples and any predicted grades, the grades a school expects a student to achieve in final examinations. They are the evidence the new school and any tutor will build from, and they are far easier to carry than to reconstruct later.
Where tutoring fits
We have supported international families in Bali since 2020: weekly subject tutoring, first-term transition support, structured programmes for homeschool families and learning support for children with special educational needs (SEN). Sessions happen at your home or villa, with travel arrangements confirmed in writing.
Every engagement starts with a complimentary discovery call and a written brief, and the exact rate is confirmed in writing before the first session. We reply within one working day.
For families still choosing, that discovery call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It is often the fastest way to turn this guide’s generalities into a plan for one specific child.
Next steps
Work through these in order; each step makes the next one cheaper and quicker.
- Decide the curriculum before the school, working backwards from your next destination.
- Shortlist two or three schools and request full written fee schedules.
- Visit with your child, or arrange a video call with a year-group head.
- Map syllabus gaps for each subject before or just after arrival.
- Browse our free resources and guides for deeper detail on each topic.
- Message us on WhatsApp with your child’s age and year group, school, curriculum and area if you want structured support.
Related
WhatsApp +62 858 6969 6869 · info@privatetutoringbali.com · We reply within one working day.
Sources and further reading
Published by Private Tutoring Bali. Sources and corrections.