TL;DR: Davao has one IB World School — Stockbridge American International School, authorised on 20 March 2025 for the Primary Years Programme only, the first and only IB school in Mindanao. There is no IB Diploma Programme in Davao, no school we could find claiming Cambridge IGCSE or A Level, and no Davao school publishing a current tuition schedule. Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School covers Japanese-linked families with a Nihongo department inside a Philippine K-12 programme. Everyone else is choosing between well-run local private schools, several of them PAASCU accredited. Plan the secondary years before you accept the posting.
Davao is a good city to live in and a thin city to school in if you need a foreign curriculum. That is the honest summary, and it is worth saying plainly before you read a ranking page that implies otherwise.
What follows is what we could verify from the accreditors' own directories and the schools' own websites, and what we could not.
What exists, at a glance
Currency note: USD approximations use ~₱62 = US$1 as of August 2026.
| School | Location | Curriculum | Published fee | Accreditation (verified) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockbridge American International School | Bugac, Maa, Davao City | "Internationally-benchmarked curricula"; IB PYP per IB directory | Not published | IB World School, PYP, authorised 20 March 2025 |
| Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School | Davao City | Philippine K-12 in English plus Nihongo department | Only an SY 2021-2022 PDF | Displays a PAASCU badge; ask for current status |
| Stella Maris Academy of Davao | Barrio Obrero, Davao City | Philippine K-12, Catholic | Not published | PAASCU Level III grade school and junior high |
| Ateneo de Davao University Grade School / JHS | Davao City | Philippine K-12, Jesuit | Not published | Not stated on the page we read |
| Davao Christian High School | V. Mapa and C.P. Garcia campuses | Philippine K-12 with basic Mandarin | Not published | Not stated on the page we read |
| Assumption College of Davao | J.P. Cabaguio Ave, Davao City | Philippine K-12 plus college | Not published | References a historic PAASCU survey report |
| Precious International School of Davao | Davao City | Philippine K to 12 | Not published | Not stated on the page we read |
The one IB school in Mindanao
The IB organisation's own school directory lists exactly one school in Davao: Stockbridge American International School, IB school code 063276, authorised on 20 March 2025. The programme authorised is the Primary Years Programme. The listed IB coordinator address is Don Julian Rodriguez Sr. Avenue, Bugac, Maa, Davao City, Davao del Sur 8000.
Two details matter and neither is flattering to the marketing you will see elsewhere.
First, the authorisation is PYP only. There is no Middle Years Programme and no Diploma Programme in Davao. PYP runs to Grade 6. If your child is eleven and you are planning ahead, Davao gives you five or six good years and then a problem.
Second, the school's own website does not mention the IB at all. On the pages we read, stockbridge.ph describes "internationally-benchmarked curricula" and says its curricula "adhere to the standards of our international education partners," without naming a partner or an accreditor. The IB record is real and it is on the IB's own system; the school simply is not leading with it online. If IB status is why you are applying, ask admissions to confirm the programme and the authorisation date in writing, and check the code 063276 against the IB directory yourself.
The IB directory also lists the school's website as a Facebook page rather than a domain, and gives no other web address. Stockbridge's own site does list two campuses — Bugac, Maa Road in Davao City and a General Santos City campus on Leon Ilido Street, Lagao — so confirm which campus the PYP authorisation covers before you enrol. The IB coordinator address points to the Davao campus.
Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School
PNJK-IS is Davao's Japanese-linked school and the one most often misdescribed. It is not a Japanese national curriculum school. Its own site sets out a Philippine programme in English running from pre-school through primary, intermediate, junior high and senior high, with a dedicated Nihongo department alongside. For a family moving from Japan, that means the Japanese language continues and the academic system changes.
On fees, the only schedule still hosted on its own website is a PDF filed under 2021 and named for SY 2021-2022. That is four school years stale and we are not going to quote figures from it as if they were current. Ask admissions for the current schedule in writing.
The site displays a PAASCU badge. We could not open a PAASCU page confirming the school's current level, so treat the badge as a claim to verify, not as a verified level.
What Davao does not have
This section is the reason the post exists.
- No IB Diploma Programme. Grades 11 and 12 on the IB pathway are not available in Davao, or anywhere in Mindanao.
- No IB Middle Years Programme. The secondary IB gap is total, not partial.
- No school we could find claiming Cambridge IGCSE or A Level. We checked the Davao schools listed above and found no Cambridge claim on any of their own sites. We also could not run a directory search: the Cambridge International school finder was returning "The Find a Cambridge school search is currently unavailable" when we checked. So this is a negative finding from school websites, not a directory-confirmed absence. If a Davao school tells you it is a Cambridge school, ask for the centre number and check it when the finder comes back online.
- No WASC or CIS accredited school that we could verify. Those are the two accreditors that matter most to admissions officers outside the Philippines, and neither surfaced on a Davao school's own site.
- Almost no published pricing. Not one Davao school we checked publishes a current tuition schedule. Ateneo de Davao's grade school comes closest, announcing "Zero Tuition Increase and Flexible Downpayment for SY 2026-2027" — a rate freeze without a rate.
If any of those gaps is a dealbreaker for your family, the realistic alternatives are Cebu, where there is a full IB continuum school and a British-curriculum campus, or Metro Manila. Our Cebu international schools guide has the fee schedules that Davao does not publish, and the national IB list shows exactly where each programme is authorised.
The realistic Davao shortlist
Most expat families in Davao end up choosing among established local private schools. That is not a downgrade; several of them are well accredited and several have decades of history. It just means DepEd's K-12 curriculum, not a foreign one.
Stella Maris Academy of Davao, in Barrio Obrero, is the clearest case for checkable quality. PAASCU's own site lists its grade school at Level III valid to Nov 2028, junior high at Level III valid to May 2029, and senior high at candidate status to Feb 2027, with initial accreditations dating to 1992 and 1993. Note that its website returned a server error when we tried it, so use the phone.
Ateneo de Davao University runs a grade school covering playschool, nursery and kindergarten through Grade 6, and a separate junior high school, both inside the Jesuit system. The grade school site publishes no fee schedule.
Davao Christian High School runs two campuses, V. Mapa in the downtown and C.P. Garcia on the diversion road, with around 2,900 pre-school, elementary and high school students. Its own description includes that students "are exposed to basic Chinese (Mandarin)" — useful for Chinese-speaking families, though it is a language component, not a Chinese curriculum.
Assumption College of Davao on J.P. Cabaguio Avenue covers elementary through senior high with HUMSS, STEM, ABM, ICTC and HE strands, plus a college. On accreditation its own history page refers to a PAASCU survey report issued after its founding years and says PAASCU "continues to challenge the school" — that is a historical account rather than a current level statement, so ask for the current status.
Precious International School of Davao carries "international" in its name but describes a standard K to 12 programme covering kindergarten and twelve years of basic education. Read the name as branding, not as curriculum.
Other options that exist and have working sites include Brokenshire College, Davao Central College in Toril and Colegio de San Ignacio. None of them published fees on the pages we could open.
You can also browse the wider registered list on our Davao City schools directory.
Paperwork comes before the shortlist
For a foreign child, the school choice is downstream of the immigration status.
Foreign nationals who do not qualify for a student visa apply for a Special Study Permit. The Bureau of Immigration publishes the cost as ₱5,240 across application, implementation, service, certificate and legal research fees, plus US$50 for the I-card. That is roughly US$85 plus the card. Start with the Special Study Permit guide and the rules for foreign students in basic education.
If you are moving on a work visa, the route for your children is different again — see schooling for 9G worker dependents.
Do this before you pay an application fee. Schools will happily process an application while your dependent status is unresolved, and the fee is rarely refundable.
Questions to ask a Davao school
Because so little is published, the interview does the work the website should have done.
- What is the full annual fee for the coming school year, and what is the one-time entry charge? Ask for both in one email.
- What is not in that number? Books, uniforms, bus, trips, devices, graduation fees.
- Is there a foreign-student rate? Some Philippine private schools charge one. It is rarely published.
- What accreditation do you currently hold, and when does it expire? Then check PAASCU or the IB directory yourself. Both are public.
- How do you handle a child arriving mid-year from a foreign system? Ask what documents they require and whether they place by age or by assessment.
- What happens at Grade 11? In Davao this is the question that decides things. If the school has no international pathway, find out now what its graduates do and where they get in.
How to decide
If your children are in the primary years, Davao is workable. Stockbridge gives you a genuine PYP authorisation, the local private schools are solid, and the cost of living is a fraction of Manila's.
If your children are already in secondary school on a foreign curriculum, be honest with yourself early. There is no IGCSE, no A Level and no IB Diploma in the city. The choices are switching to the Philippine curriculum, boarding elsewhere, or choosing a different posting. Families who discover this in year two of a three-year contract tend to make expensive decisions in a hurry.
Sources
- IB — Stockbridge American International School (school code 063276)
- IB — Find an IB World School
- Stockbridge American International School
- Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai International School
- PAASCU — Stella Maris Academy of Davao
- Ateneo de Davao University Grade School
- Davao Christian High School
- Assumption College of Davao
- Precious International School of Davao
- Cambridge International — Find a Cambridge school
- Bureau of Immigration — Special Study Permit