← Back to the rankingEscuela Italiana Cristoforo Colombo
Buenos Aires, Argentina · est. 1952 · Private
Illustration · Buenos Aires
Escuela Italiana Cristoforo Colombo is an Italian paritaria school in Buenos Aires where children aged 2 to 17, more than 1000 students, study in one building on Ramsay street. It grew out of courses for children of Italian families who came to Argentina after the Second World War; the association that runs it was founded on 2 April 1952 and the current building opened in 1974. The middle school and liceo were recognised by Italy as early as 1953, and since March 2004 the school has been paritaria, part of the Italian education system, issuing diplomas recognised in Italy and the European Union. Teaching is bilingual and bicultural: Italian is the main language for the humanities, arts and sciences of the Italian curriculum, Spanish for the Argentine curriculum and physical education, and English is taught as a foreign language from kindergarten. The liceo has three tracks: liceo scientifico, liceo delle scienze umane (economico-sociale) and liceo artistico. Graduates sit the esame di Stato and also receive the Argentine Bachiller Bilingüe. The school has 8 Italian teachers sent by the Italian Foreign Ministry.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $6 573–9 190 a year
1–1.4 million ARS a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Italian programme · National programme
Admits from
2 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, Spanish
Languages taught
English, Latin
About the fees Fees for the 2026 school year are paid in 10 instalments, March to December. The September 2026 rate: kindergarten 1002000 ARS per month, grade 1 1143000 ARS, grades 2-5 1241000 ARS, media 1311000 ARS, liceo 1401000 ARS. In March 2026 the fees were 910000, 1036000, 1125000, 1190000 and 1270000 ARS; the contract warns that amounts may change in line with staff salaries. Sibling discounts: second child 10%, third 25%, fourth and further 40%, only with direct debit. Fees exclude optional activities: swimming, extra English from the first year of media, camps, outings and materials.
Admissions The school states that it admits children of any nationality: besides Argentine families, it enrols children of Italian families temporarily in Argentina, Italian exchange students and transfers from other schools. Steps: online form, information meeting with the admissions officer, an in-person meeting of the child and family with the counselling team and the heads, documents, place reservation, enrolment and payment of the matrícula. Age for each level is counted at 30 June of the year of entry. Children from non-Italian schools take admission tests based on their previous school's curriculum; Italian children moving into the liceo from a different track may take supplementary exams. There are separate document lists for Argentines, Italians and foreigners of other nationalities (passport, school certificate translated if necessary). Under Italian rules, children of compulsory school age are enrolled by age even without Italian; those who speak neither Italian nor Spanish get an individual language plan, there are Spanish courses for non-Spanish speakers, and since 2024 an agreement with the Società Dante Alighieri in Ramos Mejía provides Italian courses for applicants to upper years without a language certificate.
Stages and year groups Kindergarten (scuola dell'infanzia, groups for ages 2, 3, 4 and 5, full day, each group with Spanish and Italian teachers); scuola primaria grades 1-5, 8:00 to 16:00, 3-4 classes per grade; scuola secondaria di primo grado (three years, equivalent to years 6 and 7 of Argentine primary and the first year of the bachillerato) ending with the esame di Stato after the third year; a four-year liceo (the last four years of the Argentine bachillerato) with liceo scientifico, liceo delle scienze umane opzione economico-sociale and liceo artistico (per the PTOF and the list of diplomas, indirizzo Architettura e Ambiente). The liceo ends with the esame di Stato before a mixed commission and the Italian diploma di maturità, recognised in Italy and the European Union; on promotion the Argentine Bachiller Bilingüe Castellano/Italiano is also issued. The two diplomas are independent of each other. Preparation for Cambridge English exams (KET, PET, FCE, CAE) is offered.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
MAECIItaly's foreign ministry names the school on its list of paritarie Italian schools abroad: it teaches the Italian curriculum, and Italy recognises its exams and diploma on a par with state schools.
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
MAECIItaly's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI)
An Italian school abroad: a state or paritaria school, the Italian curriculum, the esame di Stato exam and a diploma with the same legal value as in Italy.
What the badge means for this school. This is an Italian school abroad: it teaches the Italian curriculum, and Italy's foreign ministry names it on its list of state or paritarie schools - so Italy recognises its exams and diploma. The entry is not a quality inspection. Which stages are recognised and what the school charges are on this page and on the school's own website. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Italian programme
The Italian school curriculum taught in Italian: scuola dell'infanzia, primaria, secondaria di primo grado (scuola media) and the liceo, ending with the state exam, the esame di Stato, and the Italian diploma.
What this means for this school. The curriculum is set by the Italian state: the school is an Italian state school abroad or a paritaria school, recognised by Italy. Exams follow Italian rules and the diploma has the same legal value as in Italy, giving access to Italian universities. The host country's curriculum usually runs alongside, and students receive two certificates.
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
Exam results The admission rate to the esame di Stato is consistently above 98%, and almost all admitted students obtain the Italian diploma with results the school describes as good on average; all graduates also receive the Argentine bachillerato. Since 2026 the school has administered the Italian INVALSI tests on its own, although they are not compulsory for schools abroad.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Campus: A single building of 10348 sq m on a 10000 sq m plot, opened in 1974: three floors in a U shape around a large central courtyard. Fifty-five classrooms, computer, physics and chemistry labs, an astronomical observatory, music and art rooms, an audiovisual lab, an Aula Magna auditorium for 330 people, a library of more than 18000 volumes with 40 reading places, a dining hall (catering by a contractor), a snack bar and an infirmary. For sport there are outdoor courts and an indoor gym; on Saturday mornings the school opens for sport and leisure activities. It is a full-day day school with no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Atletismo (athletics) · Handball · Hockey · Fútbol (football) · Judo · Ajedrez (chess) · Voleibol (volleyball) · Tenis de mesa (table tennis) · Natación (swimming) · Theatre · Choir · Orchestra · Pop/Rock Band · Drama Club · Model United Nations · Creative Writing · Programming · Science Lab · Origami · Chinese · Argentine Mathematics Olympiad · Arts & Fun
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 has 8 Italian teachers sent by the Italian Foreign Ministry and teachers hired directly from Italy (the school pays their flights, housing and health insurance). In kindergarten each group has Spanish and Italian teachers plus an assistant; in primary, Italian and Spanish teachers teach together or in turn; project-based learning has been used since 2024.
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 room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
A permanent first-aid infirmary, with an ambulance service when needed. The school counselling team (psychologists and educational psychologists) works across all levels. The Inclusion Council coordinates anti-discrimination measures and anti-bullying protocols and publishes the inclusion plan on the website every year; there is also an inclusion working group and an inclusion coordinator. The building is maintained under current safety regulations.
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%)72 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 data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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