Online School & Homeschool in Baghdad

Online school and international curriculum in Baghdad

For Baghdad families — Cambridge and IB taught live on exactly your clock, alongside the school your child already attends.

Live online Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge A-Level, Pearson Edexcel International, IB Diploma Programme, and American Curriculum with Advanced Placement (AP) for Baghdad families. The capital holds the federal institutions, the University of Baghdad and one of the oldest continuous academic traditions anywhere, the country's largest professional population, and a long-established medical and engineering sector whose graduates practise worldwide. What families here most often want from us is not a different education but an additional record: an internationally examined qualification alongside the Iraqi one, read directly by universities abroad. And Iraq shares our teaching clock exactly, so any hour of our day is available.

Challenges Baghdad families face

International school places are limited relative to the size of the professional population.
Families whose children may study abroad need a record read directly rather than converted.
Education is compulsory and administered by the federal Ministry of Education.
We could not verify Iraq's position on parental home education in either administrative track.
Time zone: none. Iraq runs UTC+3 year-round and so does our teaching base.

Why Baghdad families choose Smartious

Exactly your clock, all year: Iraq runs UTC+3 year-round and so do we. No offset, no seasonal drift — any hour of our teaching day is available at the hour it shows on your clock.
Pre-medical and engineering depth: Cambridge A-Level Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics — the spines a city with this medical and engineering tradition aims at, taught by subject specialists in groups of four to six.
A record read directly abroad: UCAS reads A-Levels natively; American, Canadian and Gulf universities read A-Levels and the IB without conversion.
Alongside the Iraqi record, never instead of it: We are not a licensed Iraqi school and issue no Iraqi qualification. Your school carries the domestic side.
Arabic kept as an examined subject: Cambridge Arabic runs alongside the English-medium core rather than being traded away.

Iraqi education is administered on two tracks, and this is the first thing a family should understand about the framework. The federal Ministry of Education administers schooling in the governorates under federal administration, including Baghdad, while the Kurdistan Region has its own Ministry of Education administering schooling in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok and Halabja — with differences in curriculum, language of instruction and school administration between the two. So the ministry that governs a family's situation depends on where they live, in the same way that Bosnian, Argentine and Swiss families deal with different administering authorities within one country. For Baghdad, that is the federal Ministry of Education. Education is compulsory at the primary level and private and international schools operate with ministerial licensing; Smartious holds no such licence, does not operate premises in Iraq, and issues no Iraqi qualification. On parental home education we could not verify a position in either track, and we are not going to guess. We will not tell you it is permitted and we will not tell you it is prohibited; both would exceed what we can evidence. What we would add is what we say in Panama, Guatemala, Venezuela and Jordan: an absence of clear regulation is an absence of protection rather than a permission, because where a matter is unaddressed there is nothing for a family to demonstrate if the question is raised. Confirm your own position with the ministry that administers education where you live. Our arrangement raises none of it: live Cambridge or IB teaching alongside an Iraqi school enrolment, with the school carrying the domestic record and the national examinations, toward which we do not teach.

Smartious delivers to Baghdad families online; the live programme is complete without in-person supplementation.

Live online via Smartious LMS. Iraq runs UTC+3 year-round and our teaching base runs UTC+3 year-round, so there is no offset whatsoever and nothing drifts seasonally — a class sits at the same hour on both clocks, every week of the year. Every session is recorded, so a class that cannot be attended is never a class lost.

Baghdad holds the federal institutions, the University of Baghdad and one of the oldest continuous academic traditions anywhere, the country's largest professional population, and a long-established medical and engineering sector whose graduates practise worldwide. Iraq runs UTC+3 year-round — exactly our teaching clock, with no offset at all.

Family situations we work with

Medical, engineering and academic families with a long professional tradition.
Corporate and professional households outside the international tier's fees.
Diplomatic and international-organisation families.
Students who will apply to universities in the UK, US, Canada, the Gulf or Jordan.
Families whose children need a subject their school cannot staff for a small group.
Households returning mid-curriculum from another country's system.

Baghdad communities and nearby areas

Karrada · Mansour · Jadriya · Al-Harithiya · Zayouna · Baghdad Al-Jadida · the Tigris corridor

Common questions from Baghdad families

Is homeschooling legal in Iraq?

We could not verify a position and will not guess. Education is compulsory at the primary level, administered federally in Baghdad and the federal governorates and by the Kurdistan Region's own Ministry of Education in the Region. An absence of clear regulation is not a permission — confirm with the ministry that administers education where you live. Structured study alongside a school enrolment raises none of it.

Do you teach the Iraqi national examinations?

No. We are not a licensed Iraqi school and issue no Iraqi qualification. We teach Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel, IB and AP examinations, which sit alongside the Iraqi record rather than replacing it.

What time are classes?

Any hour of our teaching day, at exactly the time it shows on your clock. Iraq and our teaching base both run UTC+3 year-round with no seasonal changes — a zero offset.

Our child may study abroad — which qualification helps?

Cambridge A-Levels and the IB Diploma are read directly by UK, American, Canadian and Gulf universities rather than converted through recognition procedures. AP serves US-focused applications alongside.

Guides for families in Iraq

What parents say

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“I have peace of mind as a Smartious Homeschool parent. No more traffic and early morning rush to school. Smartious are the most organized homeschool providers.” — Google reviewer, Google review