South Africa Latest School Calendar and Re-opening School

Due to the second wave of coronavirus, schools in South Africa only reopened on February 15^th as the start of the 2021 academic year. To help parents and students to rebound to their footing, South Africa has released a new school calendar.

Earlier, it was reported that schools in South Africa had been closed since December last year. Then, the government expected to reopen them by early 2021. However, it had to abruptly postpone the opening due to the increase in coronavirus infections.

Although some parents raised objections about the plan at the outset, Primary Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the implementation of this settlement would prioritize the health and safety of teachers, students, and staffers.

Furthermore, school managers should ensure staffers and learners are always wearing masks. Also, they have to observe health regulations to prevent the virus from spreading further.

So, when you are ready to go back to school, you should first know the learning schedule. Here are important dates in 2021 you should know based on South Africa’s latest school calendar.

Days for Administration

At the beginning of the year, educators must start work two days before the learners start school to finalise preparations for that school year.

Similarly, at the end of the year, educators must stay two days after the learners have left in order to complete administrative tasks and planning for the following school year.

This year, the government set ten days for administration in the early weeks of February. It started on February 1^st to 5^th, then continued on February 8^th to 12^th.

School Days

Apart from regulating the days for administration, the government of South Africa also regulates the establishment of school days in its latest calendar.

Particularly, the calendar must provide for approximately 200 school days a year, as this is the optimum number of days for the completion of the education programme. Also, the number of school days must be the same in all provinces.

Generally, the school calendar for all public schools in South Africa consists of four terms. “School term” means the basic subunit of time into which the school year is subdivided. And, in the four-term system, this amounts to approximately 55 school days.

Moreover, the government ruled that school terms must consist of no more than 60 and no fewer than 43 school days. However, the length of terms may vary. The fourth term will end during the second week of December. For learners, the last school day is Wednesday.

In particular, here are the school days in 2021.

February 2021

• February 15^th – February 19^th
• February 22^st – February 24^th

March 2021

• March 1^st – March 5^th
• March 8^th – March 12^th
• March 15^th – March 19^th
• March 23^rd – March 26^th
• March 29^th – March 31^st

April 2021

• April 1^st
• April 6^th – April 9^th
• April 12^th – April 16^th
• April 19^th – April 23^rd

May 2021

• May 3^rd – May 7^th
• May 10^th – May 14^th
• May 17^th – May 21^st
• May 24^th – May 28^th
• May 31^st

June 2021

• June 1^st – June 4^th
• June 7^th – June 11^th
• June 14^th – June 15^th, June 17^th – June 18^th
• June 21^st – June 25^th
• June 28^th – June 30^th

July 2021

• July 1^st – July 2^nd
• July 5^th – July 9^th
• July 26^th – July 30^th

August 2021

• August 2^nd – August 6^th
• August 10^th – August 13^th
• August 16^th – August 20^th
• August 23^rd – August 27^th
• August 30^th – August 31^st

September 2021

• September 1^st – September 3^rd
• September 6^th – September 10^th
• September 13^th – September 17^th
• September 20^th – September 23^rd
• September 27^th – September 30^th

October 2021

• October 1^st
• October 11^th – October 15^th
• October 18^th – October 22^nd
• October 25^th – October 29^th

November 2021

• November 1^st – November 5^th
• November 8^th – November 12^th
• November 15^th – November 19^th
• November 22^nd – November 26^th
• November 29^th – November 30^th

December 2021

• December 1^st – December 3^rd
• December 6^th – December 10^th
• December 13^th – December 15^th

Public Holidays

South Africa will have 13 public holidays in 2021, including an additional two days off to celebrate public holidays which fall over a weekend.

The Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) determines that whenever any public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following on it shall be a public holiday.

Thus, March 22^nd and December 27^th will each become an additional public holiday in terms of the Act.

The South Africa public holidays 2021, according to the official government proclamation, are as follows:

• January 1^st (Friday): New Year’s Day
• March 21^st (Sunday): Human Rights Day
• March 22^nd (Monday): Public Holiday
• April 2^nd (Friday): Good Friday
• April 5^th (Monday): Family Day
• April 27^th (Tuesday): Freedom Day
• May 1^st (Saturday): Workers’ Day
• June 16^th (Wednesday): Youth Day
• August 9^th (Monday): National Women’s Day
• September 24^th (Friday): Heritage Day
• December 16^th (Thursday): Day of Reconciliation
• December 25^th (Saturday): Christmas Day
• December 26^th (Sunday): Day of Goodwill
• December 27^th (Monday): Public Holiday

School Holidays

School holidays must provide learners and educators with sufficient opportunity to rest. At the same time, holidays must not be so long as to adversely affect learning retention.

If a long weekend begins on a public holiday that falls on a Friday, and such a weekend coincides with the beginning of the school holidays, schools must close on Wednesday and not on a Thursday.

On the other hand, if a public holiday falls on the first Monday of the school holidays, schools must close on the previous Thursday and not on a Friday.

However, if it happens that, owing to public and school holidays in April, a week has only two school days, those two days will be declared school holidays to avoid disruption of the teaching and learning programme.

Holiday at end of the first term (usually, in April; also referred to as the “Easter Holidays”)

• Coastal provinces: one week (April 26^th – April 30^th)
• Inland provinces: one week (April 26^th – April 30^th)

Holiday at end of the second term (usually, in June – July)

• Coastal provinces: two weeks (July 12^th – July 23^rd)
• Inland provinces: two weeks (July 12^th – July 23^rd)

Holiday at end of the third term (usually, in October)

• Coastal provinces: one week (October 4^th – October 8^th)
• Inland provinces: one week (October 4^th – October 8^th)

Holiday at end of the fourth term (December – January)

• To be announced

Final note

Finally, it should be noted that this latest school calendar of South Africa only applies generally to public schools. Therefore, the new dates for the reopening of private schools will vary depending on the calendar that they follow.

However, for public schools and private schools which follow the same calendar, learners should have returned to schools on Monday, February 15^th, 2021.

Tell us, how did you feel about going back to school? Feel free to drop your thoughts on it.

All in all, if you prefer the digital version of the latest school calendar of South Africa you can download it here (PDF).