IB tutors in Riyadh: MYP and Diploma Programme, online

IB schools in Riyadh

Programmes as stated by each school or its IB listing, checked on 6 October 2026. Authorisations change, so confirm with the school.

How IB schools fit the Saudi rules

The IB authorises a school to teach its programmes; the Saudi Ministry of Education licenses the school itself. OWIS Riyadh describes the result clearly on its curriculum page: an integrated programme for Muslim students in line with Ministry of Education regulations, with Arabic and Islamic classes from Grade 1. In the Diploma years, Islamic studies and Saudi social studies sit outside the IB timetable, and schools differ on whether IB Arabic also covers the Ministry's Arabic requirement.

So a DP student in Riyadh is carrying six subjects, TOK, the Extended Essay and CAS, plus the identity subjects. Time is the scarce resource, and it is usually the internal assessments that get squeezed.

The May 2027 session and the Riyadh calendar

The IB's May 2027 examinations run from late April to mid-May, and the IB sends each school its exact subject timetable; results come out in early July. In Riyadh the run-up is shaped by two things: Ramadan, expected to start around 8 February 2027, which shortens school days during mock season, and the Ministry's Eid al-Adha holiday from 7 to 22 May 2027, which overlaps the exams themselves. IB exams run to the IB's own schedule, so expect papers during that break.

Internal deadlines arrive much earlier. Schools set their own Extended Essay and IA deadlines well before the IB's spring upload deadline, often in the first half of the second year. Check your school's internal calendar, not just the IB's.

What an IB tutor does in Riyadh

Most requests are for Maths Analysis and Approaches or Applications and Interpretation, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, often at HL. The tutor teaches to the current subject guide and the paper format, for example the calculator and non-calculator papers in Maths AA, and practises the command terms the IB marks against, such as explain, evaluate and show that.

For the IA and the EE, the tutor works within IB academic integrity rules: discussing a research question, explaining how the criteria are applied, and pointing out weak analysis, but never writing or editing the student's work. Lessons are 60 minutes, one to one, online, at UTC+3, usually Sunday to Thursday evenings, with Friday or Saturday sessions in the final months.