← Back to homeGimnazija Banja Luka
Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina · est. 1895 · State
Illustration · Banja Luka
Gimnazija Banja Luka opened on 4 October 1895 as a velika realka preparing pupils for higher schools of forestry, agriculture and chemistry, and counts itself among the oldest secondary schools in Republika Srpska. Girls have been admitted as regular students since 1912, and in 1919 the school became a real gymnasium. The 1969 earthquake destroyed the earlier building, and on 15 January 1972 the school occupied the present one on Zmaj Jovina street, a gift from Sarajevo to Banja Luka: about thirty classrooms, laboratories, a library and a sports hall. It now has over 1,200 students in 45 class sections and about 120 members of staff. The national programme is divided into four tracks: general, social-linguistic, natural sciences and computing. Alongside it the school runs the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme: the eighteenth cohort took the diploma with an average of 34 points and a 100 per cent pass rate, and in 2025 the twentieth cohort was being enrolled. Since 2009 a society for preserving the school's traditions has worked alongside it.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · German language diploma · National programme
Languages of instruction
Serbian, English
Languages taught
German, French
Admissions Entry to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is after grade II of the gymnasium. It requires the certificates for grades I and II with marks of vrlo dobar or odlican, a birth certificate and exemplary conduct. Candidates sit entrance examinations in mathematics and English, followed by an interview with the programme coordinator, the psychologist and the pedagogue. Applications for the 2024-2026 cohort opened on 13 June 2024, and for the following cohort on 17 June 2025.
Stages and year groups The gymnasium gives four years of secondary education, grades I to IV, following the nine-year primary school. The national programme is divided into four tracks: general, social-linguistic, natural sciences and computing. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme covers the last two years, grades III and IV, and is entered by a separate competition after grade II.
Address Zmaj Jovina 13, 78000 Banja Luka
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeZfA · language examinationThe school is listed as an IB World School with the Diploma Programme, taught in English. It names neither its authorisation status nor its authorisation date on its own pages: it counts by cohorts instead, and in 2025 the twentieth was being enrolled. The German Language Diploma at the second level, DSD II, stands to the school's name on the KMK list, but the school does not confirm it on its own site.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →ZfACentral Agency for German Schools Abroad
A German federal agency. It recognises a school as a German school abroad, funds it and grants the right to award the German leaving certificate. Quality is examined by a state inspection about once every six years, and schools that pass receive the mark of an excellent German school abroad.
What the badge means for this school. The organisation grants the school the right to prepare pupils for its language examination and to sit it. That is all the entry says: the examination covers one subject, the other subjects follow whatever curriculum the school works to, and no inspection of the school as a whole stands behind it. The diploma is real and the register is public, so the entry is shown - but on its own it does not bring a school into the ranking, by the same measure as an examination centre. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →German language diploma
The Deutsches Sprachdiplom, the German language diploma. The federal agency ZfA grants a school the right to prepare pupils for this examination and to sit it; the conference of state education ministers oversees the work, and Germany signs the diploma. There are two levels: DSD I is B1, DSD II is C1, and the latter admits a holder to a German university without a further language examination.
What this means for this school. This is the right to run one language examination, not a school programme: the other subjects follow the national curriculum of the school's own country, and no inspection of the school as a whole stands behind the DSD. It does not lead to a German leaving certificate; that is awarded only by recognised German schools abroad, which hold a different recognition from the same agency.
National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Average IB score
34 (world average 30.88)
Exam results The eighteenth cohort of the International Baccalaureate took the diploma in May 2025: every candidate passed, with an average of 34 points against a world average of 30.6. Eight students scored between 35 and 40 points, six between 30 and 35 and three between 24 and 29; the best result was 41 points out of 45.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school occupies a 1972 building on Zmaj Jovina street in the centre of Banja Luka: about thirty classrooms, laboratories, a library and a sports hall.
Clubs and activities: Debating club · Calligraphy club · Confucius Classroom · Erasmus+ projects · Off-site lessons and excursions · Annual almanac · Literary magazine "Orfej" · CAS hours for Diploma Programme students
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The school employs about 120 people: teachers, librarians, clerical and other staff.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median90 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country