The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has revealed that the 2025 school calendar has been approved. The school calendar was gazetted after it went through several stages including public comments.
The 2025 school calendar indicates that learners around the country will start and end the school year on the same days. This is different from the staggered school calendar used by the DBE in previous years.
The staggered calendar saw learners begin and end the school year of different dates depending on which province they resided in. This staggered calendar resulted in provinces being grouped into two clusters, namely the coastal cluster and the inland cluster.
Inland provinces of the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West. The coastal cluster featured the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and the Western Cape
However, the DBE have done away with the staggered and a common school calendar for schools around South Africa will be used from 2024 onwards.
The 2025 school year will begin on 15 January 2025 and conclude on 10 December 2025. The 46-week school year will see learners spend 199 days in the classrooms.
Here’s The Official 2025 School Calendar
|
Duration |
No. of week |
No. of days |
No. of public holidays |
Actual no. of school days |
|
(13)15 January - 29 March |
11 |
53(55) |
1 |
51(53) |
|
8 April - 27 June |
12 |
59 |
5+3 |
49 |
|
22 July - 3 October |
11 |
54 |
1 |
52 |
|
13 October - 10 December (12) December |
9 |
43(45) |
0 |
47(49) |
|
Total |
43 |
209(213) |
7+3 |
199(203) |
The dates in brackets indicate when teachers will return to school for administrative purposes.
The DBE have also revealed that the 2026 school calendar is currently going through the public comment process. Members of the public can make submissions and have their say on the 2026 school year.
