Private School Tuition in Metro Manila 2026 — Published Rates

TL;DR: Metro Manila private school costs are wide, and most figures circulating online are estimates nobody published. Here are the ones the schools themselves put in writing for SY 2026-2027: Ateneo de Manila froze tuition and fees across all school units; De La Salle projects ₱74,000–₱96,000 per term for incoming first-year college students, unchanged from last year; International School Manila lists $9,720 + ₱306,400 for Preschool up to $19,660 + ₱623,800 for Grades 11–12. In NCR the ESC grant is worth ₱13,000 a year and the Senior High School voucher up to ₱22,500.

A note on where these numbers come from

There is a lot of invented precision in Philippine tuition content. Ranges get quoted for schools that have never published a rate, exchange rates get applied to dollar fees to produce peso figures the school never charged, and last year's numbers get relabelled as this year's.

This guide only carries figures a school or a government issuance actually published, and names where each one came from. Where a school has not published, we say so rather than estimating. If you need a number we do not have, the section at the end explains how to get it in one phone call.

What the universities published for SY 2026-2027

Ateneo de Manila University — tuition frozen

On 3 June 2026 the Office of the President issued Memo # U2627-001, "Tuition Freeze & Salary Increase in SY 2026-2027." It states that at its meeting on 30 May 2026 the Executive Committee of the Ateneo de Manila Board of Trustees approved no tuition and fee increases across all school units for SY 2026-2027, funded by cost-cutting in operational expenses and delayed capital expenditure, and paired with a salary increase for all employees.

Separately from the freeze, Ateneo's Tuition and Fees page publishes one estimated schedule, and as of its 17 June 2026 update that schedule is labelled School Year 2027-2028. The university does not post a separate peso breakdown for SY 2026-2027. For a 20-unit Loyola Schools undergraduate load:

The university notes that School of Science and Engineering programmes cost slightly more because of laboratory fees, that overload and laboratory charges are additional, and that students may pay in two or four instalments.

De La Salle University — three terms, published per term

DLSU publishes a Projected Tuition and Fees for Incoming First-Year College Students sheet. For AY 2026-2027, Term 1, September 2026 intake, the average tuition and fees per term are:

These are identical to the AY 2025-2026 sheet. DLSU adds that the assessment is subject to adjustment for changes in academic load, laboratory courses, and Foundation or Advanced Placement exemptions.

The trimester system is the trap here. A DLSU term looks cheaper than an Ateneo semester because there are three of them. Multiply by the number of terms you will actually enrol in before comparing — and ask, because third-term loads vary by programme.

University of Santo Tomas — a separate table per college, per term

UST does not publish a single university-wide rate. It posts a Schedule of Fees for each college for each term — the current set covers A.Y. 2026-2027 First Term (August to December 2026) — broken into tuition per lecture and laboratory unit, miscellaneous fees, other fees, and additional fees that apply only to certain year levels.

The College of Nursing table shows how much the year level matters. Full payment without NSTP or ROTC for the first term is ₱74,593 in first year and ₱146,143 in fourth year, because Related Learning Experience and hospital affiliation charges appear from second year onward. Our nursing school cost guide works through that table in detail.

The practical lesson: for UST, and for any university with per-college schedules, quoting one number for the whole institution is meaningless. Pull the table for the specific college.

The international schools

International School Manila

ISM bills in two currencies. Its published SY 2026-2027 fees:

New students additionally pay a matriculation fee of $4,500 and a facilities enhancement fee of $4,500. The application fee is $700. Optional support services are billed separately — English as an Additional Language at $1,625 per semester in year one and $1,100 in year two, and Learning Support Services from $840 to $2,940 per semester by level.

We do not convert the dollar portion into pesos. The peso equivalent moves with the exchange rate, and quoting a converted total as if it were the price is how misleading figures get into circulation. Budget the dollar component as a foreign-currency exposure, not a fixed peso amount.

The others

The British School Manila, Nord Anglia International School Manila and Brent International School Manila all publish fee schedules, and all bill on structures of their own — BSM in a mix of sterling and pesos, with a separate capital development charge. We have removed the peso ranges this guide previously carried for them, because we could not trace them to a school publication. Request the current fee sheet from each admissions office; every one of them will send it.

What the government pays toward private school

Two subsidies do real work in NCR, and both are set by DepEd Order No. 011, s. 2026 (Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of E-GASTPE).

ESC grant — Grades 7 to 10. Paid to the participating private junior high school. In the National Capital Region the amount is ₱13,000 per year, against ₱11,000 in highly urbanised cities outside NCR and ₱9,000 elsewhere. The amount a learner receives in Grade 7 stays the same for the full four-year term. If the school's declared total fees are lower than the grant, the school is paid only the total fees.

Senior High School Voucher — Grades 11 and 12. For NCR, the maximum is ₱22,500 per beneficiary per school year for priority categories A to C, and ₱18,000 for categories D and E. As with ESC, the school is paid the lower of its total school fees or the maximum voucher amount.

For teachers, the same order sets the Teachers' Salary Subsidy at ₱24,000 per eligible private school teacher per school year, covering ten months of active teaching service. It is not a discount to families, but it is part of why a small ESC school can hold fees down.

See our dedicated guides to the ESC grant and the SHS Voucher Program for eligibility and application mechanics.

The rules that govern increases

Private schools set their own rates — Section 42 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 232 says each private school shall determine its own tuition and other school fees. But RA 6728, the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act of 10 June 1989, attaches two conditions that are worth knowing as a parent.

Consultation is required. Section 10: "In any proposed increase in the rate of tuition fee, there shall be appropriate consultations conducted by the school administration with the duly organized parents and teachers associations and faculty associations with respect to secondary schools, and with students governments or councils, alumni and faculty associations with respect to colleges."

Seventy percent must go to people. Section 5(2) requires that 70% of the amount allotted for tuition fee increases go to the payment of salaries, wages, allowances and other benefits of teaching and non-teaching personnel, excluding administrators who are principal stockholders.

If your school has proposed an increase and you were never consulted, that is a specific, citable objection, not a vague grievance.

Reading a Manila fee schedule without getting caught out

Convert everything to a full year before comparing. Semester, trimester and quarterly systems produce per-term numbers that are not comparable. Multiply by the number of terms you will actually enrol in.

Separate tuition from the rest. Schools break the bill into tuition, miscellaneous fees (library, laboratory, medical and dental, athletics, registration) and other fees (energy, information development, student council, insurance, learning management system). The UST nursing table above lists more than twenty separate line items. A school advertising low tuition with heavy miscellaneous charges can cost more than one doing the reverse.

Ask which year levels carry extra charges. Laboratory, NSTP, affiliation, immersion and thesis or oral defence charges appear in specific years. First-year figures systematically understate the four-year total.

Ask about the currency split. At international schools, part of the bill is in dollars or sterling. Your effective cost rises when the peso weakens even if the school never raises a rate.

Get the number in writing. Ask the registrar or finance office for the current Schedule of Fees for the specific programme and year level, and for the instalment schedule. Universities post these publicly; basic education schools will email them on request.

Find your school

Metro Manila has hundreds of private schools across every budget and curriculum. Compare them by location, level and type on SchoolFinderPH rather than by whatever range a listicle invented.

Browse private schools in Metro Manila on SchoolFinderPH →

Related reading: Ateneo de Manila tuition, DLSU tuition, UST tuition, Ateneo vs La Salle costs, and private vs public school costs.

Sources

• Ateneo de Manila University — Tuition and Fees (College) — School Year 2027-2028 estimated per-semester charges: ₱110,691 tuition (20 units), ₱17,394 basic fees, ₱8,524 other fees, ₱136,609 in total; page updated 17 June 2026
• Ateneo de Manila University — Tuition Freeze and Salary Increase in SY 2026-2027 (Memo # U2627-001) — the Executive Committee approved no tuition and fee increases across all school units for SY 2026-2027 at its meeting on 30 May 2026