The Department of Basic Education has gazetted the confirmed and proposed school calendars for 2025 and 2026, respectively, featuring a significant change in start dates.
Public schools in South Africa follow a staggered opening structure each year, with inland schools – Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the North West – starting classes around a week earlier than coastal schools in KwaZulu Natal and the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape.
Inland schools started on 11 January 2023 this year, while coastal schools started a week later, on 18 January. Both regions end at the same time, however, with the school terms normalising from term two. Coastal regions make up the lost week by ending term one a week later.
From 2024, however, and continuing in 2025 and 2026, the department plans for schools in both coastal and inland regions to start and end at the same time.
The newly gazetted and confirmed school calendar for 2025 will see all schools start on 15 January 2025, and end on 10 December 2025.
The calendar makes room for 199 school days, 27 school holidays, and ten public and special holidays during school terms.
The terms will be:
- Term 1: 15 January to 28 March
- Term 2: 8 April to 27 June
- Term 3: 22 July to 3 October
- Term 4: 13 October to 12 December
The 2026 calendar, which is now open for public comment, proposes a start date for all schools on 14 January 2026, ending on 9 December 2026.
In 2026, the calendar makes provision for 200 school days, 27 school holidays and seven public and special holidays during school terms.
The proposed terms are:
- Term 1: 14 January to 27 March
- Term 2: 8 April to 26 June
- Term 3: 21 July to 2 October
- Term 4: 13 October to 9 December
All interested persons and organisations are invited to comment on the Proposed 2026 School Calendar, in writing, and direct the comments to the Director-General for Department of Basic
Education, for the attention of Mr S Mlambo, e-mail: [email protected]; cc [email protected]
Shorter holidays
The 2025 and 2026 school calendars are following a new pattern of slightly shorter school holidays, which is coming into effect next year.
The 2024 public school calendar starts on 17 January 2024 and ends on 11 December, delivering a total of 203 school days – four more than in 2022 and 2023.
There will also be fewer school holidays in 2024, with the calendar making provision for just 25 days off, compared to 32 days in 2023 and 33 in 2022. Even in 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, there were 31 days of school holidays that year.
To accomplish this, the 2024 calendar is structured in such a way that the school terms are not interjected by as many public holidays.
Read: Here is the school calendar for 2023
Artmotion S.Africa
