When people hear "IB school," most picture an expensive international school. This story is different. Among ordinary public elementary, middle, and high schools -- where tuition stays the same as any other public school -- the number formally running the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum has grown to 269 nationwide. But while elementary and middle schools have expanded quickly, high schools are still few and far between. Here's why that gap exists, and how to check whether a school like this exists in your area.

Public-school IB works differently from international-school IB

We've already covered how IB, A-Level, and AP differ as curricula, but IB adopted into public education takes a fundamentally different approach than international schools do. International schools select individual students through an admissions process, while public-school IB works differently: the school itself is designated by the metropolitan or provincial office of education, and the entire student body assigned to (or admitted into) that school learns under the IB curriculum. In other words, a parent isn't applying their child to an individual "IB class" -- the real question is whether an IB-running school exists in your area, and whether it falls within that school's attendance zone.

It started in Jeju -- 18 schools as of March 2026

Korea's public-education IB adoption was pioneered by the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Office of Education. As of March 2026, Jeju has 12 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 1 high school (Pyoseon High School) running IB -- 18 schools in total. Unlike the rapid growth at the elementary and middle levels, high-school-level IB -- specifically the IBDP (Diploma Programme), which connects directly to college admissions -- was run at Pyoseon High School alone for a long stretch of time.

Why elementary and middle schools grew but high schools didn't

IB at the elementary (PYP) and middle (MYP) levels can be introduced largely by changing how classes are taught and assessed within the existing curriculum. High school IBDP, however, is a complete, self-contained curriculum with separate completion requirements, including internal and external essay-based assessments, an Extended Essay (EE), and Theory of Knowledge (TOK). On top of that, how to connect IBDP with Korea's college entrance exam (Suneung) system and admissions tracks hasn't been fully worked out, which slows expansion the further up the school ladder you go. In fact, the Jeju Provincial Council itself has pointed to this bottleneck: elementary and middle schools were built up, but high school IB remained at just one school.

What the 2026 Seongsan High School case shows about the designation process

To break through this bottleneck, Jeju's Seongsan High School is now going through the process to become the second IBDP school. Each year, in the first half, the provincial office of education runs an open call for new IB schools, and a review committee evaluates the principal's operating plan and the school's educational conditions to make a selection. For Seongsan High School, the timeline runs more than three years: applying as an IB Interested School in the second half of 2026 → operating as a Candidate School in 2027 → IB World School authorization in the second half of 2028 → actual IBDP rollout in the second semester of 2029. Expressing interest doesn't mean students can start learning under IBDP the very next semester -- a school has to move through the Interested School, Candidate School, and formal authorization stages in sequence.

Daegu spread differently -- 38 schools, down to kindergartens

Daegu took a different path from Jeju. As of June 2026, Daegu has 38 IB World School-authorized schools, and the authorization now extends beyond elementary and middle schools to a public kindergarten (the kindergarten attached to Gunwi Elementary School), the first public kindergarten in the country to receive IB World School authorization. The approach aims to link elementary, middle, and high school together across an entire region as a single "IB education cluster" -- a different model from Jeju's hub-school-centered expansion.

How this connects to the 5-tier grading system and the 2028 admissions reform

Expanding high-school-level IBDP ultimately comes down to how its essay-based assessment connects with the 5-tier high school grading system that took effect from the 2026 school year and the college admissions reform applying from the 2028 school year. Right now, students who complete IBDP mostly apply to Korean universities through a separate special-admissions track rather than the general internal-grade or Suneung-based tracks, which means they aren't yet compared against other students using the same yardstick -- a gap that's still unresolved.

How to check if your child's school runs IB

You can check whether your child's current (or assigned) school runs IB through the IB-operating-school announcement on your metropolitan or provincial office of education's website, or through the School Info Disclosure site. That said, being designated an "IB school" doesn't mean every grade and every class is immediately run under the IB curriculum. At the Interested School and Candidate School stages, it's common for only certain subjects or specific grades to pilot the program, so you need to confirm the actual scope directly at a school information session or with your child's homeroom teacher.

Summary

①Public-school IB is a school-level designation, not an individual application like at international schools, so start by checking your local office of education's list of IB-operating schools. ②Jeju has 18 schools as of March 2026 (12 elementary, 5 middle, 1 high school), while Daegu has 38 as of June 2026 -- two different expansion models. ③High school IBDP is spreading more slowly than elementary and middle school IB because of its essay-based assessment system, and even a new designation takes more than three years from Interested School to full rollout. ④How IBDP connects to Korea's college admissions system (the 5-tier grading system and the 2028 admissions reform) is still being worked out, so if college admissions are part of your planning, it's worth confirming at a school information session whether a special-admissions track applies.