Guide · Curricula
Is there a bilingual Serbian and English school in Belgrade?
Three, and each one means something different. Bilingual is normal at three and rare at seven, which is the real decision.
Updated September 2026 · schools' own pages read 24 August and 8 September 2026
Three of the 19 schools in this guide teach in both Serbian and English, and they mean three different things by it. Ruđer Bošković runs the two languages side by side for the whole of school; Crnjanski offers an explicitly bilingual Serbian-English track at primary and lower secondary, then splits by programme; Deseta gimnazija teaches in Serbian until fifteen and then in English for the IB Diploma. The other 12 English-medium schools are not bilingual at all: they teach in one language, and that language is not Serbian. At kindergarten the picture reverses. 11 of the 18 settings we track pair Serbian with another language, which makes bilingual the norm before five and the exception after it.
The three schools, and what each means by bilingual
| School | Ages | What bilingual means here | Programmes | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Privatna internacionalna škola „Ruđer Bošković“ | 5 to 18 | Both languages throughout | IB Primary, Middle Years and Diploma alongside the Serbian national programme | Banovo Brdo, Košutnjak |
| Obrazovni sistem „Crnjanski“ | 7 to 18 | A bilingual Serbian-English track at Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary; after that Serbian for the national programme and English for the IB Diploma and Cambridge Upper Secondary | Serbian national programme, Cambridge, IB Diploma | Banovo Brdo, Žarkovo |
| Deseta gimnazija „Mihajlo Pupin“ | 15 to 19 | Serbian, then English for the Diploma only | Serbian state gimnazija plus the IB Diploma Programme | Novi Beograd |
Read off each school's own pages, most recently on 8 September 2026. Neither the International Baccalaureate's register nor Cambridge International's would return results to us, so each programme is as the school describes it.
Four things the word is used for
The word covers four different arrangements in this city, and the difference matters more than any prospectus admits.
- Two languages carried together, all the way. Only Ruđer Bošković does this: the IB continuum and the Serbian national programme in one school, from five to eighteen, with a Serbian national track running beside the Diploma in the last two years. A family can change route without changing school, which is the practical reason to care.
- A bilingual stream you opt into. Crnjanski states that Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary are available English-medium or bilingual Serbian-English. It is the only school in this guide that offers the choice as a named option rather than as a description of the whole school.
- One language, then the other. Deseta gimnazija is a Serbian state gimnazija whose IB Diploma stream is taught in English. Nothing is bilingual before fifteen. It is also free, which nothing else on this page is.
- Neither language shared. Belgrade's German, French and two Russian schools each teach in a single foreign language. They are not bilingual either, and a child arriving with Serbian and English will be the one learning a new language there.
Bilingual at three, monolingual at seven
This is the finding a family should take away, and it is the one no individual school will tell you, because it is about the city rather than about them.
Bilingual provision in Belgrade is normal in kindergarten and almost absent at school. Eleven of the eighteen international and foreign-language kindergartens we track pair Serbian with another language, most of them with English. Three of the nineteen schools do. A child who spends three years in a Serbian-and-English nursery and then moves to one of the twelve English-medium schools stops being schooled in Serbian at five, and the Serbian side of the household becomes the parents' problem rather than the school's.
That is not an argument against the English-medium schools, which are most of the good provision in this city. It is an argument for deciding deliberately at five rather than discovering it at nine, and for asking what Serbian a school actually teaches rather than what language it says it supports. The guide has a page on what each school teaches in and where its language support stops, and a separate one on Serbian lessons for foreign children, which is the route most families end up taking.
Which way to choose
Two cases where the answer is not on the school's website.
If you intend the child to sit the Serbian matura or use a Serbian university route, the national programme has to be followed, which in this guide means Ruđer Bošković, Crnjanski or the state system. An English-medium Cambridge or IB school does not lead there without nostrification of the certificate, and that is a process to understand before enrolling rather than after.
If you are here for two or three years, the reverse applies: a bilingual school splits a short posting's attention across two systems, and families on short postings generally do better staying in one. Bilingual is a commitment that pays over years, not months.
Questions families ask
Is there a bilingual Serbian and English school in Belgrade?
Three, out of the nineteen schools in this guide. Privatna internacionalna škola „Ruđer Bošković“ runs both languages from five to eighteen; Obrazovni sistem „Crnjanski“ offers a bilingual Serbian-English track at Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary; and Deseta gimnazija „Mihajlo Pupin“, a state school, teaches in Serbian and then in English for the IB Diploma from fifteen.
Are the English-medium international schools bilingual?
No. Twelve of the nineteen schools teach in English only. That is monolingual teaching in a foreign language, which is a different thing from bilingual schooling, and it means Serbian is not part of the school day beyond whatever language lessons the school runs.
Which bilingual schools follow the Serbian national programme?
Ruđer Bošković runs it alongside the full IB continuum, and Crnjanski runs it alongside Cambridge and the IB Diploma. Deseta gimnazija is a Serbian state gimnazija, so the national programme is what it is, with the IB Diploma as a stream inside it.
Are there bilingual kindergartens in Belgrade?
Many more than there are schools. Eleven of the eighteen international and foreign-language kindergartens we track pair Serbian with another language, usually English, and one, Srpsko-francuski vrtić Guliver, pairs it with French. Bilingual is the normal arrangement before five.
Is there a free bilingual school in Belgrade?
Deseta gimnazija „Mihajlo Pupin“ is a state school, so it does not charge the way the private schools do. We could not establish from its own pages whether the IB Diploma stream itself carries any charge for students, and that is worth asking directly.
My child speaks English but not Serbian. Is a bilingual school right?
Usually not as a first move. A bilingual school expects the Serbian side to be usable, and a child without it carries two unfamiliar systems at once. Most families in that position choose an English-medium school and add Serbian lessons outside it, then reconsider once the child is fluent.