← Back to the rankingMeridian 22 Private High School
Sofia, Bulgaria · est. 1998 · Private
Illustration · Sofia
Meridian 22 Private High School (Private Foreign Language High School Meridian 22) is a private, fee-paying English-language day high school for grades 8-12 in Mladost 2, Sofia. It was licensed in 1998; its founder is Meridian 22 Ltd., established in 1990 by Eng. Radka Stamenova. Since the 2009/2010 academic year the school has been an IB World School (No. 4671) offering the Diploma Programme in grades 11 and 12; graduates can earn both the IB diploma and the Bulgarian secondary school diploma. The Bulgarian programme follows curricula for high schools with intensive foreign language study, with the Foreign Languages and Entrepreneurship profiles; the Bulgarian line is taught in Bulgarian with intensive English, the school calls itself an English language school, and in the Diploma Programme English is the language of English B and Bulgarian the language of literature. The school is small: in 2023/2024 it had 103 students, one class per grade and two eighth-grade classes. Since 2024 it has occupied a new building. A kindergarten and the Meridian 22 Junior High School operate at the same address.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $8 993–11 071 a year
7 960–9 800 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Bulgarian, English
Languages taught
German, Spanish
Class size
no more than 16 students per class
Registration fee
≈ $113
100 EUR
About the fees Annual fees for 2026-2027: grades 8-12 7960 euro; Diploma Programme 9460 euro for current students and 9800 euro for external students (the card range uses the external price). The school offers full and partial merit-based or need-based scholarships.
Admissions The school states directly that it welcomes students from Bulgaria and other countries provided that the admissions criteria are met; international students and applicants whose first language is not Bulgarian come in the priority list after current students and siblings. Grade 8: application, interview with the student and parents, entry tests in Bulgarian Language and Literature, Mathematics and English; if the application comes after the National External Assessment, its scores are also considered. Grades 9-11: the same tests and interview plus a one-week trial enrolment. Diploma Programme (grade 11): a 10th-grade average of at least 4.50, a motivation letter in English, an English exam at Cambridge First or Advanced level (written and oral) and an interview; candidates from abroad also sit Mathematics and Bulgarian Language and Literature. Holders of the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (at least C) are exempt from the English exam for the Diploma Programme. The school may refuse students without the proper documents to reside and study in Bulgaria.
Stages and year groups Grades 8-12. A five-year course in grades 8-12 on state curricula for high schools with intensive foreign language study: English in every grade, a second foreign language (German or Spanish) from grade 9, the Foreign Languages and Entrepreneurship profiles. At the end of grade 10 students take the National External Assessment, and at the end of grade 12 the state matriculation exams and the Bulgarian secondary school diploma. In grades 11-12 the school offers the IB Diploma Programme; subjects: Bulgarian A Literature, English B, German and Spanish ab initio, Economics, Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Psychology, Theory of Knowledge and CAS. The Meridian 22 kindergarten and junior high school are separate institutions.
Address Mladost 2, next to bl. 227, Sofia
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeThe IB register lists the Diploma Programme at the school; it is taught in grades 11-12 alongside the Bulgarian national programme and the state matriculation exams.
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 →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 IB Diploma: the school has graduated 14 cohorts since the programme began; the results page lists top final scores of 36 to 44 out of 45. State matriculation exam in Bulgarian Language and Literature, school average: 2020 5.37, 2021 5.04, 2022 5.00, 2023 4.66 against national averages of 4.20, 4.14, 4.05 and 3.93; grade 12 English exam: 2020 5.68, 2021 5.56, 2022 4.95, 2023 4.96 on the six-point scale.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Clubs and activities: Cooking Club · Interact Club Sofia International
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
In summer the school organises two-week language courses in the UK with Select English: in Culford for students up to 14 and at Cambridge Juniors for ages 14-18 (in summer 2025 from 6 to 19 July and from 13 to 26 July); classes in groups of up to 12 with two teachers, and weekend trips.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: university-educated specialists, some of them researchers at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and university lecturers; IB teachers have completed IB certification courses, and some are IB examiners
In 2023/2024 the school employed 43 teaching professionals: the principal, the vice-principal, eight full-time teachers (including a guidance counsellor), one part-time teacher and 35 contracted lecturers. Among them the school names researchers from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, university faculty, holders of advanced degrees and IB examiners. The Diploma Programme coordinator and the CAS coordinator are named on the site.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
✓CCTV
✓Security staff
✓Access control
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school lists security guards and a visual monitoring system; it has access control rules and rules for safe learning conditions. An educational counsellor trained in psychology works at the school, and the school psychologist sits on the admissions committee. The school strategy names the prevention of violence and bullying as a priority; the school holds Pink Shirt Day and assemblies on youth violence. Medical care and a complaints policy are in place.
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 data90 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data64 "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