About 7% of schools in Greece are private and 7% of pupils who attend compulsory education study in private schools, which is the highest percentage in the European Union. Private institutions in Greece offer all levels of education and are mostly branches of American and UK schools. They charge annual tuition fees of between 1.500€ and 13.000€ depending on the school and the grade. The reason why so many families decide to send their children to private school despite the high costs is the common belief that private schools offer better education than state schools. Another reason is the infrastructure and equipment of private schools - each has at least one computer laboratory, a gym and a library. Besides, private educational institutions implement the current national curriculum and award titles equivalent to that of public schools.
Expatriates in Greece who want to enrol their children in a private school have a wide range of options. They can choose between various Greek private schools that follow the state curriculum, or one of the foreign private schools which offer different education programmes. Foreign pupils in Greece usually attend foreign private schools with a foreign education programme, while Greek pupils mostly attend foreign private schools with a Greek education programme. There are also schools with a Greek and foreign curriculum that are interesting for both Greek nationals and foreigners. Classes in private schools may be taught in different languages, however, Greek is compulsory for all foreign schools, even if they only have a foreign curriculum.