← Back to homeAlbanian College Durrës
Durres, Albania · Private
Illustration · Durres
An English-speaking private school in central Durrës with a curriculum rooted in the American school system: Early Years for children aged 3-5, a Primary School, a Middle School for Grades 6 to 8 and a High School for Grades 9 to 12. The High School follows AERO standards and students can take Advanced Placement courses. All subjects except Albanian language and literature are taught in English, as the school states on its admissions page; Albanian language and literature are compulsory for native Albanian speakers and form part of their preparation for the national Matura exams, while children who are not native speakers can learn Albanian. In secondary school students learn English, Albanian, German and Spanish. The school is home to families from more than twelve countries, with more than 300 students and more than 35 teachers and teaching assistants. The school says education there begins at age 3, not at age 6 as in most schools. Secondary students compete in sport through the Tirana Association of International Schools (TAIS) and in Albanian competitions, and the school has a championship-winning chess team.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $3 389–6 552 a year
3 000–5 800 EUR
Programmes
AP · American programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Albanian, German, Spanish
About the fees Tuition procedures for 2025-2026: Early Years 3000 euros a year, Primary (Grades 1-5) 4800 euros, Secondary (Grades 6-11) 5800 euros. Tuition is paid in three instalments on 1 August, 1 December and 1 April: 1000 euros each for Early Years, 1600 euros each for Primary, and 2000, 2000 and 1800 euros for Secondary. Tuition covers all classes of the grade level, access to the cafeteria, library and school facilities, and after-school activities.
Admissions The school admits children from age 3 and describes itself as home to families from more than twelve countries; children for whom English is an additional language work with specialist English teachers, and those who are not native Albanian speakers get Albanian lessons. Admission follows seven steps: a visit to the school, a meeting with the Head of Primary or Secondary, a short English level test and an informal interview, a review of the test results with suggestions for improving English, documents (previous school records, identification, medical records), a free trial day, and enrolment with payment and agreement to school policies.
Stages and year groups Grades Early Years 1-3, Grade 1 - Grade 12. Early Years covers children aged 3-5 over three years, with a class teacher and a teaching assistant in every class. Primary runs from Grade 1 to Grade 5. Middle School covers Grades 6 to 8 and High School Grades 9 to 12, following AERO standards with Advanced Placement courses. The 2025-2026 tuition procedures list Secondary as Grades 6 to 11.
Address Lagja 1, Rruga Anastas Durrsaku, Durrës
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cognia · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeschool 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
CogniaCognia, formerly AdvancED
The widest-reaching American accreditation: some forty thousand schools in over a hundred countries. It accredits both individual schools and whole school systems. It also sells a paid membership with no inspection behind it, and that membership is often passed off as accreditation.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →College BoardCollege Board, the AP programme
An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →AP
Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.
What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.
American programme
The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.
What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school is in central Durrës. It has a library of more than 2000 books and a school cafeteria, and a school bus runs in some areas.
Clubs and activities: Chess · Robotics · Stagecraft · Art · TAIS sports teams
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
There are more than 35 teachers and teaching assistants. Most staff are from the United States, with teachers also from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Belgium, South Korea, Singapore, Spain and Australia; all subjects except Albanian are taught by international staff. Early Years classes have a class teacher and a teaching assistant. Children for whom English is an additional language are supported by specialist English teachers.
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school says safeguarding is at the heart of its recruitment: references and a criminal records check are carried out for every new teacher.
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%)75 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 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 data73 "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 8 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