Indian schools in the Netherlands: what exists in Amsterdam and beyond, what does not, and what Indian families do instead

Indian schools in the Netherlands is one of the first things a family types after the posting is confirmed, and the answer needs to be said plainly because the search results do not say it: there is no CBSE or ICSE school in the Netherlands. Not in Amsterdam, not in Amstelveen with its large Indian community, not in The Hague, Utrecht or Eindhoven. What exists instead is a set of things that each answer part of the question, an Indian-run international school, Hindu primary schools with a Dutch curriculum, weekend Hindi schools, and the open-schooling route for an Indian certificate. This post goes through each, says what it is and is not, and then describes the three ways Indian families in the Netherlands actually educate their children.

What exists

Amity International School Amsterdam, in Amstelveen, is run by the Amity Education Group from India and is the school Indian families most often mean when they say "the Indian school". It teaches the IB programmes, PYP, MYP and Diploma, in English, with a large Indian community among its families and a familiarity of culture that many parents value. It is not a CBSE school: the curriculum is the IB, the maths is in the IB order, and the fees are those of a private international school, about €20,000 to €26,000 a year for 2026-27. It is compared with the other Amsterdam-area international schools in international schools in Amsterdam and Amstelveen.

The Hindu basisscholen in The Hague, and a few elsewhere, were founded by the Surinamese-Hindustani community, whose ancestors left Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for Suriname in the nineteenth century and came to the Netherlands in the 1970s. They are Dutch state schools, free, following the Dutch curriculum in Dutch, with a Hindu identity: the festivals, some Hindi or Sanskrit, vegetarian food at events. They are open to any family and some Indian expat families in The Hague choose them; most do not, and the children do as well at either. They are not Indian schools in the Indian sense, and a child there sits the same doorstroomtoets and receives the same school advice as any Dutch child.

Weekend Hindi and culture schools run in every city with an Indian community: Amstelveen, Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Almere. They teach Hindi reading and writing, sometimes Tamil, Telugu or Punjabi, Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music, and they are where the community meets. They are a supplement, an hour or two on Saturday, not a school.

Online Indian schooling. A number of Indian and international online schools offer the CBSE or an Indian-style curriculum remotely, and NIOS, the National Institute of Open Schooling, is the recognised route for a child abroad to sit Class 10 and Class 12 under an Indian board. NIOS is real and used by families who return in the senior years; it is not a school for a 7-year-old, and a child in the Netherlands is required to attend a Dutch or recognised international school in any case, because school is compulsory from 5 and home schooling is barely permitted.

What does not exist, and why

There is no CBSE-affiliated school in the Netherlands for a simple reason: the Indian community here is large but spread, the Dutch state funds Dutch and Dutch-subsidised international schools generously, and the families who want English-medium schooling have the IB and British schools. The CBSE schools of the Gulf exist because tens of thousands of families there expect to return to India and the state does not fund alternatives; neither condition holds in the Netherlands. A family that needs the Indian board for a return has to carry it themselves, and the plan for that is in how to keep your child CBSE-ready.

What Indian families actually do

The Dutch school, with the standard kept at home. The majority. Free, in the neighbourhood, Dutch within a year, and a child who finishes with a vwo diploma that Indian universities accept. The families keep the maths at an Indian standard and the English at grade level at home or with a tutor, because the Dutch school will not, and they keep the CBSE sequence alive in science if a return is possible. The comparison with the international schools, on cost, language and the return question, is in Dutch school vs international school.

The Dutch-subsidised international school. The choice for a posting of a few years, or a child arriving at 11 or older: AICS in Amsterdam, the International School of The Hague, Utrecht, Eindhoven and the others, on the IB, in English, at €4,200 to €10,000 a year because the Dutch state funds the teachers. Waiting lists at the popular years; the fees and who qualifies are in international school fees in the Netherlands 2026-27.

The private international school, Amity or the International School of Amsterdam. The choice when the employer pays or the family wants the community and the facilities: €20,000 to €36,000 a year, no waiting list in most years, and for Amity a school gate where Hindi is spoken.

What none of the three provides is an Indian syllabus, and that is the point families arrive at after the search: the question is not which Indian school, because there is none, but which of these three, and what to add at home so that the child's maths, English and, if needed, CBSE readiness do not depend on the school.

What we do

That addition is what we are. We teach maths, science and English to the children of Indian families across the Netherlands, in English, Hindi or Punjabi, one child per class, in the order of the child's actual school, at an Indian standard, with the CBSE sequence kept alive for families who may return. Bring the school you have chosen and the child's last Indian report to the free demo and we will tell you what to keep at home.

Questions parents ask

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