CBSE schools in Singapore with fees: the four Indian international schools (GIIS, NPS, DPS International, Yuvabharathi), what they charge, the local MOE-school route, and how an Indian family chooses

Singapore has four Indian international schools on the CBSE syllabus, and between them they take most of the children of the expatriate Indian families who want their children to stay on the Indian board. The alternative is the local MOE school, which most Singaporean-Indian and permanent-resident families use and some expatriate families can enter through the AEIS test. This page is for a family arriving in Singapore or moving school inside it: the four schools and what they offer, the approximate fee bands, the local route and what it means, and the five questions that decide the choice.

The four CBSE schools, and what each offers

All four are CBSE-affiliated, follow NCERT, run the April-to-March year, and sit the CBSE board exams in Singapore on the same dates as India. The three larger ones also run the IB and IGCSE, which matters for a family that may stay: a child can start on CBSE in primary and move to the IB in Class 11 without changing school.

The fee bands, approximately

The figures are approximate bands for the middle grades from the schools' published fee schedules; senior grades, the IB and the admission, enrolment and bus charges come on top, and every school revises its fees yearly. Check the school's fee page before deciding.

For comparison, the British, American and other international schools in Singapore charge S$30,000 to S$50,000 a year, so the Indian international schools are the lower-cost international option; and the local MOE schools charge international students a monthly fee set by MOE that is far below any of these, with the trade-off that places depend on AEIS and vacancies.

The local MOE route, honestly

Singaporean citizens and permanent residents are placed in MOE primary schools through the P1 registration exercise, and the system is the one Singapore is known for: PSLE in Primary 6, which streams the child into Express, Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) (now the Full Subject-Based Banding system), then O Levels or the Integrated Programme, then A Levels or polytechnic. International students apply through the Admissions Exercise for International Students, a centralised English and maths test held once a year, and are placed where there are vacancies, which in the popular schools there are not.

What the local route means for an Indian family: a very high standard in maths and science, taught the MOE way (the model method, the heuristics, the problem sums) from Primary 1; English as the medium and a mother tongue subject (Tamil is offered, Hindi through the Board for the Teaching and Testing of South Asian Languages); and a syllabus that does not line up with CBSE, so a move back to India in Class 8 or 9 needs a bridge in maths order and in Hindi. Most families who are in Singapore for the long term choose it if they can get in; families on a posting of uncertain length choose a CBSE school.

What the fee buys, and what it does not

Across the four CBSE schools the syllabus and the board exam are identical. The fee buys the campus, the class size (about 25 at the top of the range against 35 to 40 at the bottom), the subject choice in Class 11 and 12, the IB option, and the activities. It does not buy attention in maths and science: in every one of them, as in every CBSE school in India, the child who loses the thread in fractions or the first algebra is not noticed until the term result. That is the gap families close with a tutor, and in Singapore it is usually an online one from India, because a private tutor in Singapore with teaching experience charges S$60 to S$120 an hour and a master's-qualified tutor in Chandigarh teaching the same NCERT chapter 1-on-1 charges S$13 to S$17, at 4 to 7 pm Singapore time, which is an Indian afternoon.

Five questions that decide the choice

1. How long are we here? Under three years, or uncertain: CBSE. Long term with PR: the local school if a place is available, with a CBSE bridge if a return is possible.
2. Will the child study in India or abroad after school? India, JEE and NEET: CBSE through Class 12. Abroad: the IB at GIIS, NPS or DPS International, or the local A Levels.
3. Which campus is reachable? Singapore's school buses are long; Punggol to Jurong is an hour. The nearest of the four is usually the right one.
4. What is the class size in the grade your child will join? Ask for the number, not the average.
5. What is the total cost with the one-time fees and the bus? The gap between the bands narrows once the admission and enrolment fees, which are substantial at the larger schools, are added.

Whichever school it is, the first thing to check in the first term is maths: the CBSE schools in Singapore run ahead of NCERT, as the Dubai schools do, and a child arriving from India in the middle of a year is usually a chapter behind on day one. We wrote the Dubai version of this guide in CBSE schools in Dubai with fee structure, and the Oman version in Indian schools in Oman; the pattern is the same in all three. Our Singapore page has the class times and the schools we see most. The first 30-minute class is free.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →