TL;DR: Faith Academy in Cainta, Rizal is the missionary-kid school on the eastern edge of Metro Manila, founded in 1957 and accredited by ACS WASC since 1972. It is one of the very few schools in the country that publishes a complete fee schedule, and it prices in US dollars: $3,080 a year for Pre-K up to $18,425 for high school, plus an annual facility and technology fee of $1,065 to $1,620. Those are the regular rates. Missionary households and evangelical ministry workers can apply for a discount whose size the school does not publish. Boarding is the part where priority is explicit, with missionary children first in line.
What Faith Academy actually is
Faith Academy sits on Penny Lane Street inside Valley Golf Subdivision in Cainta, Rizal, on the eastern edge of Metro Manila rather than inside it. Anyone searching for a Makati campus will not find one. The school's own FAQ describes the location as "Penny Lane, Valley Golf, Cainta on the edge of Metro Manila" and warns that it is not easily accessible by public transport.
The school opened on 15 July 1957 with 47 students and 6 teachers, in a rented house on V. Mapa Street in Manila. Land east of Manila was bought in 1961 and the current campus opened for the 1962-63 school year with 212 students. The first graduating class, 11 students, finished in 1965.
Its stated mission is narrow and it does not hide it: "Forming Christlike, lifelong learners through a dynamic, relevant education, especially for the children of missionaries serving in Asia." The board of trustees is 15 voting members drawn from the missionary community. That governance detail matters more than the marketing copy, because it explains why the discount structure and the boarding priorities look the way they do.
At the same time, the school is not closed. Its about page states that students of missionary families, international businesspeople, diplomats and Philippine nationals are all welcomed. If you are a corporate expat rather than a missionary, you can apply. You will simply pay the published rate rather than a discounted one.
The fee schedule, in dollars
Faith Academy publishes a full tuition and fee table on its Finances page, which puts it in a small minority. Most international schools in Metro Manila publish nothing at all, a gap covered in our international school fees guide.
The rates below are the ones on the school's Finances page as of late August 2026, sitting alongside application windows that run from January to June 2026, which places them in the 2026-2027 admissions cycle. Peso figures are our own approximations at roughly ₱62 to US$1 and are not the school's numbers.
| Division | Tuition (semester) | Tuition (annual) | Facility/tech fee (annual) | Annual total | Approx. ₱ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | $1,540 | $3,080 | $1,065 | $4,145 | ₱257,000 |
| Elementary (K-5) | $8,025 | $16,050 | $1,620 | $17,670 | ₱1,095,000 |
| Middle School (6-8) | $8,637.50 | $17,275 | $1,620 | $18,895 | ₱1,171,000 |
| High School (9-12) | $9,212.50 | $18,425 | $1,600 | $20,025 | ₱1,242,000 |
Two things about that table are worth pausing on.
First, the Pre-K number is a fifth of the Elementary number. The school does not say on the fee page whether Pre-K is a half-day or part-week programme, and that gap is large enough that you should ask the registrar directly rather than assume. If you are comparing early-years pricing more broadly, our preschool tuition guide covers the local range.
Second, the facility and technology fee is not optional and not small. Faith describes it as "the non-academic fee which goes toward the running and upkeep of the school" and confirms it is annual. At high school level it adds roughly ₱99,000 a year on its own.
Fees the table does not contain
The school's FAQ names four further costs without pricing them: uniforms, rental of musical instruments, travel, and transportation. School vans run to various parts of the city depending on how many students live in each area, and there is an additional fee for that service which is not published.
There is also a $300 seat deposit, required on acceptance for new students and credited against tuition.
Faith states clearly that it does not offer academic scholarships. The only financial route is the financial assistance application described below.
Application fees rise the later you apply
This is unusually explicit, and it is a genuine reason to move early.
| Application window (new students) | Fee | Testing deadline |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan - 15 Feb 2026 | $150 | 13 March 2026 |
| 16 Feb - 31 March 2026 | $200 | 17 April 2026 |
| 1 April - 15 May 2026 | $250 | 5 June 2026 |
| 16 May - 13 June 2026 | $300 | Contact admissions |
Returning students pay $50 per child until 8 February, $100 from 9 February to 8 March, and $150 from 9 March onward. All application fees are non-refundable, and the new-student fee covers both application and testing but excludes the seat deposit.
Separately, the school states that its application process opens in November each year for the next school year and that applications are accepted until 15 April, with later ones reviewed case by case. The April and May windows in the fee table are marked as depending on availability. If your posting starts off-cycle, our mid-year transfer guide covers what arriving late usually involves.
The discount the price list does not price
Faith publishes who qualifies for a tuition discount but not how much the discount is. It describes the discount as "significant" and lists two eligibility routes.
The first is being the child of an evangelical missionary. The school defines a missionary with three tests: someone who has left their home culture, who has been commissioned as a missionary by an evangelical sending organisation whose purpose is proclaiming and demonstrating the Gospel, and whose household's primary income is donations channelled through that organisation. All three, not any one.
The second route requires demonstrated financial need and covers the child of a full-time (40 hours a week) evangelical Christian ministry worker serving within their own home culture, or the child of a full-time evangelical seminary student.
Either way, the mechanism is the same. After acceptance, the family submits a financial assistance application to the Business Office, and a Financial Assistance Committee decides the level of assistance. It must be re-applied for every school year, by that year's deadline.
The practical consequence for a non-missionary expat family is that the published table is your table. There is no discount route written for a corporate transferee.
Boarding, and where priority is explicit
Faith runs three boarding homes, each with a resident couple and their own family living in it, at a ratio of one adult per ten children including the house parents' own kids. Each home takes 12 to 20 students across five bedrooms. One home is all-girls, one all-boys, and one can go co-ed if the numbers require.
Here the priority order is stated outright. Students of missionaries get priority. Missions that provide staff at Faith Academy also get priority, as do siblings of current or past boarders. Everyone else is accepted as space is available.
Boarding is meant for families living outside Metro Manila who are not on a Faith van route. Children whose parents are on furlough are normally not accepted into boarding, though they may attend as day students if the school knows who the guardians are. The majority of boarders are high school students; grades 7 and 8 are case by case; nothing below grade 7.
Published boarding costs:
- Room and board, seven-day rate: $6,740 a year (roughly ₱418,000). The five-day rate is not published and requires contacting the Director of Boarding.
- Boarding registration fee: $100 on acceptance, $125 from 9 February to 8 March, $150 from 9 March onward.
- Boarding facility fee: set at 75 percent of the academic facility and technology fee. For a high school student that works out to $1,200 a year, though the school states the rule rather than the number.
Stacking those on the high school rate gives roughly $27,965 a year, about ₱1.73 million, for a boarding student at regular tuition. That arithmetic is ours, from the school's published components.
The boarding handbook is stricter than most expat parents expect. No R-rated films of any kind, structured dating rules by grade level, and non-school internet limited outside school hours with devices kept in common areas.
Accreditation, verified
Faith Academy's own history page says it received Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation in 1972 and began offering the University of Cambridge IGCSE programme in 1981.
We checked that against the accreditor rather than taking it on trust. The ACS WASC Directory of Schools, last updated 24 August 2026, returns 12 schools in the Philippines. Faith Academy (K-12) in Cainta appears on that list as a Religious School, Comprehensive School, status Accredited. For context, the other eleven are the three Brent campuses, British School Manila, Cebu International School, Faith International Academy in Davao, International School Manila, MIT International School, Reedley International School, Southville International School and Colleges, and Stonyhurst Southville.
Teachers are required to hold either a current credential from a government body in their home country or current certification with the Association of Christian Schools International, and every teacher completes a Christian philosophy of education course within their first three years.
What Faith does not publish is a current curriculum map: there is no page setting out which external qualifications high schoolers sit today, whether IGCSE is still running, or whether Advanced Placement is offered. The 1981 IGCSE date is a history entry, not a current programme statement. Ask the registrar before you assume your child's pathway is covered.
Admission mechanics
Instruction and curriculum are in English, and the school states that English speaking, reading and writing proficiency is required for admission. Any student coming from a home or country where English is not the main language sits an entrance exam covering written and oral work, and only students who pass the English language entry testing are admitted. Testing happens at the campus or online, and is scheduled once the application, school records and application fee are all in.
Accepted standardised tests include Stanford, Terra Nova, WIDA, Woodcock-Johnson, and the CEM Achievement Test for Filipino applicants.
Application and enrolment are separate steps. Acceptance produces a letter; enrolment then requires medical forms, child safety forms and policy forms before a place is guaranteed. Current students must re-enrol every year or they are not registered for the next one.
On special needs, the school is candid rather than reassuring. It cites roughly 25 percent staff turnover each year because of rotating home assignments and shorter overseas teaching careers, and says this makes accommodating special needs more challenging. Average class ratio is no more than 25 students per teacher. The school day runs 7:10am to 2:25pm, with after-school programmes ending at 4:30pm.
Paperwork for foreign students
Enrolment at a private basic-education school is only half the job for a non-Filipino child. Foreign minors in Philippine basic education normally need a Special Study Permit rather than a student visa, and the rules differ depending on what visa the parent holds. Start with our guides to the Special Study Permit for children and to schooling for 9G worker dependents, and get your child's previous school records apostilled before you fly, as covered in the apostille guide.
Faith's own visa notes on its site concern staff, not students: incoming personnel are advised to enter as tourists and begin the 47(a)(2) missionary visa process within 30 days. That is a staff pathway and says nothing about student permits.
Who Faith Academy actually fits
It fits missionary and Christian ministry families first, by design and by price. If your household meets the school's definition of a missionary household, the effective cost is likely far below the published table, and the boarding programme exists specifically for families posted outside Manila.
It fits Christian expat families who want an explicitly evangelical school and are comfortable with a doctrinal statement of faith, chapel, and a boarding culture with firm rules. The nearest alternative with religious roots is Brent, which is Episcopal in origin and priced very differently; our ISM versus British School versus Brent comparison shows where that tier sits.
It fits less well if you want a named external curriculum with a published course list, a Metro Manila commute, or a school that will negotiate on price. On the last point, at least you can see the number before you ask, which is more than most of the schools in our best international schools list will give you. If you are still mapping the field, the Manila school directory is a starting point.
Sources
- Faith Academy: Finances - tuition, facility fees, application fee windows, boarding rates, discount eligibility
- Faith Academy: Frequently Asked Questions - application dates, English testing, boarding priority, class ratios, transport
- Faith Academy: Boarding - boarding homes, eligibility, house rules
- Faith Academy: History - founding in 1957, WASC accreditation 1972, IGCSE from 1981
- Faith Academy: About - mission, vision, who the school admits
- Faith Academy: Apply - application and enrolment steps
- ACS WASC Directory of Schools - accredited status for Faith Academy, Philippines list of 12 schools, directory updated 24 August 2026
