Primary Years Programme

There are 134 IB World Schools offering the PYP in 50 countries in the Africa, Europe, Middle East region. For information about an individual school in this or another IB region consult the IB World Schools directory "Find an IB World School".

If your school is interested in the PYP

Visit Become an IB World School  for an overview of the process of authorization and for the guide to school application and other relevant documents.

Then, if your school wishes to continue its exploration of the PYP, it should conduct a "feasibility study". The purpose of this study is to enable a school to make an informed decision on whether or not it will proceed to PYP candidate and, subsequently, authorized status.

In the IBAEM region the school's feasibility study should include all of the following.

• Participation of the educational leadership of the school in the relevant PYP introductory workshops, which you may find on the events calendar
• Purchase and study of the curriculum documents in the PYP "starter pack" available from the IB store
• Requesting a PYP preliminary visit to your school—please consult the guide to PYP preliminary visits [PDF] and the preliminary visit application form [Word]

Please note a feasibility study must be completed by all schools before a school will be processed for PYP candidate status.

You are welcome to contact the PYP unit ibaem@ibo.org should you have any further queries or require other information.

Applying for PYP candidate status

Schools planning to begin trial implementation of the PYP in January of any given year should submit Application form part A and the supporting documentation on a CD-ROM, by 1 October of the previous year.

Schools planning to begin trial implementation of the PYP in September of any given year should submit Application form part A and the supporting documentation on a CD-ROM, by 1 May of that calendar year.

Please consult the list of the supporting documents [PDF] to accompany PYP Application form part A. Only applications supported by all of the required documentation can be processed.

If your school is already a PYP candidate school

The following services are available to candidate schools.

• Access to the OCC is provided to all schools as part of their candidate status. Queries about OCC access should be addressed to occ@ibo.org.
• In-school workshops—for details and deadlines consult the following documents.
  • PYP regional managers memo [PDF] to IB World Schools and candidate schools
  • Guidelines for a PYP in-school workshop [PDF]
  • Request for a PYP in-school workshop [Word]

The candidate, or "trial implementation", phase in the IBAEM region takes a minimum of 2 to 3 years, depending on the nature/context of each school. On acceptance for trial implementation the regional office will then propose a timeline for authorization to the school. 

Tentative dates for authorization visits are established by the PYP regional manager in consultation with schools at the beginning of candidate phase. 

The authorization visit documentation (Application form part B and the supporting documents) should be submitted two months before the confirmed dates for the authorization visit. They should not be submitted any earlier to ensure they are up to date at the time of the visit.

For full details of the process consult the Guide to School Application, Guide to the Authorization Visit and Application form Part B—all of these documents are available on the IB public website under Become an IB World School.