Guide · Comparison
DSB or EFB?
Deutsche Schule Belgrad and École française de Belgrade side by side on curriculum, admissions, what the fee covers and what neither school publishes.
Updated August 2026 · schools' own pages read 24 August 2026
Deutsche Schule Belgrad teaches German curriculum, Deutsches Internationales Abitur to ages 3-18 in Senjak. École française de Belgrade teaches French national curriculum, Baccalauréat général to ages 2.5-18 in Senjak. The table below sets them side by side on everything either school publishes. Where a row says “not published”, that is the finding — it means the school does not put it anywhere public, and it is a good question to take to an interview.
Where they differ
| DSB | EFB | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | German curriculum, Deutsches Internationales Abitur, Mittlerer Schulabschluss | French national curriculum, Baccalauréat général, Baccalauréat Français International (section américaine) |
| Language of instruction | German | French |
| Ages | 3-18 | 2.5-18 |
| Founded | 1854 | 1951 |
| Campuses | School, Kindergarten | Main, Maternelle |
| Students | over 250 | 520 |
| Nationalities | more than 20 | 23 |
| Inside the fee | Textbooks and materials | Insurance |
| Billed on top | Lunch (invoiced separately by the caterer); Field trips and excursions; Optional summer care | Canteen; Garderie; Extracurricular activities; School supplies; Examination fees |
| Entrance testing | German native speakers sit a school aptitude test around March/April. Non-native German speakers additionally sit a language assessment (Sprachfeststellung). | Children arriving from a non-French system sit a placement test. Children transferring within the French or AEFE network do not. |
| Admission type | Conditional on language and age | Fixed application window |
Rows where the two schools give the same answer are listed separately below, so that this table shows only what actually separates them.
Where they are the same
| Both schools | |
|---|---|
| Neighbourhood | Senjak |
| Class size | Not published |
| Publishes fees | Yes, a full schedule |
| School bus | Nothing published |
| Special needs support | Nothing published |
What stands out about each
- DSB: Founded 1854 — by a wide margin the oldest school in this guide, and one of the oldest German schools abroad anywhere; Entry is gated on German language competence rather than nationality; Serbian taught from Grade 1; Holds the Exzellente Deutsche Auslandsschule seal, reconfirmed in 2023.
- EFB: Full AEFE homologation means a pupil can transfer into any French or AEFE school worldwide without an entrance exam; Publishes examination fees openly, which almost no other school here does; Six languages touched across the curriculum.
What to ask both
Questions worth asking both schools, because neither publishes the answer:
- DSB: Whether any transport service exists
- DSB: Whether examination fees are charged separately
- EFB: Student count: 520 (school) vs 506 (AEFE)
- EFB: What PARLE stands for — the acronym is never expanded on the site
- Both: last year's actual leaver destinations and average results.
- Both: how many teachers in your child's year group were also there last year.
- Both: whether the bus covers the street you will live on.
Questions families ask
What is the difference between DSB and EFB?
Deutsche Schule Belgrad teaches German curriculum, Deutsches Internationales Abitur to ages 3-18; École française de Belgrade teaches French national curriculum, Baccalauréat général to ages 2.5-18. They also differ on admissions process, what the fee covers and how much each publishes about itself. The full side-by-side is on this page.
Which is better, DSB or EFB?
Neither, in the abstract — and any source that answers that question is guessing about your child. The comparison that decides it is narrower: which one teaches the curriculum your child will finish in, has a place in the right year group, is reachable from where you will live, and can support your child's particular needs. This page is built to let you answer those four.