Kunming International Academy

The foundation of Kunming International Academy’s educational philosophy is the belief that there exist absolute truths and that these truths provide an essential framework for understanding ourselves and our world.

The Academy’s aim is to provide a quality education integrated with a worldview where all individuals, cultures, and religions are treated with respect. The educational program is adapted to the needs of the international student as much as possible. Although the core of its program follows an American-style academic approach, the school seeks to include emphases that transcend any one culture or nationality.

Kunming International Academy endeavors to nurture the whole person, uniquely created, by furthering each student’s intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional and social development. Since the ultimate responsibility of a child’s education lies with the parents, the Academy partners with and encourages parents in this nurturing process.

There were three choices: home school, Chinese school, or boarding school outside of China. Two families thought it would be good to offer another choice by starting an international school in Kunming. They started classes in the Wu Hua Children’s Palace in September 1994 with fourteen students and thus Kunming International Academy was born.

More than twenty-five years later, KIA’s mission remains the same as it was that first day in 1994: to provide a quality education for the children of the Kunming international community within the framework of a faith-based worldview. This education is designed to help develop mature and healthy young adults to achieve their full potential as world citizens.

In 2019, we celebrated 25 years of providing quality education to the international community and we look to the future of our school, while keeping the founding vision alive.