South Africa—19 Feb 2026

Top private school in South Africa named one of the best in the world

Bishops Diocesan College in Cape Town has been ranked among the top 150 schools in the world in the latest Carfax Education Schools Index for 2025/26.

Bishops is one of two South African schools listed in the ranking—alongside MichaelHouse—for another year running.

The index is an international guide for parents seeking the very best education for their children, comprising 150 schools split across various categories and regions.

The list is compiled independently by the Carfax editorial team, who consider factors such as academic results, leadership, ethos, reputation, facilities, university destinations, and long-term outcomes for pupils.

Bishops is a standout school in South Africa, with the Carfax team highlighting its robust curriculum, high academic standards, and traditions of excellence in sport, the arts, and culture.

Its prestige and academic performance were demonstrated once again in January 2026, when the school reported remarkable matric results.

Unlike most private schools in South Africa, Bishops offers the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam for matrics, not the Independent Examination Board (IEB) exam.

The school’s matric class of 2025 scored a 100% pass rate in the NSC exams, with 143 boys writing.

The school had a 98.6% Bachelor’s pass rate, with 474 subject distinctions (3.31 per boy), placing it second among the country’s top-performing private boys’ schools.

In 2024, for the first time, the school expanded its curriculum options to include the Cambridge Curriculum A-Levels in place of the NSC—this continued in 2025.

For the Cambridge International GCE AS and A Levels, nine boys wrote in 2025, also achieving a 100% pass rate and many distinction equivalents.

Bishops Diocesan College’s history

Bishops Diocesan College is a 176-year-old private school in Rondebosch, Cape Town.

The school was founded in 1849 as Diocesan School of the Diocese of Cape Town by Bishop Robert Gray, the eponymous “Bishop” the school is commonly known as.

The school teaches boys aged 11 to 18 and offers a unique space for them to develop at their own pace, catering to their individual needs.

While the school is founded on the Anglican faith and upholds strong spiritual ideals, it welcomes boys of all faiths and encourages them to discover and uphold the moral values and ideals that underpin its vision statement.

The school has many notable alumni who excelled and shaped many sectors of South Africa, including business, sports, and culture.

These include the likes of Pick n Pay founder Raymond Ackerman, tech billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, and a host of sportsmen who played for national teams.

The sports stars who attended the school include Herschelle Gibbs, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, and Robbie Fleck, among others.