If you're a parent moving to South Africa with kids of schooling age (or a parent in South Africa starting their kids at school), you'll probably want to mark the school holidays down in your calendar right away.
Fortunately, all public schools in South Africa have the same term dates in 2026, making school holiday planning a little easier across all regions of the country. Private and international schools, on the other hand, march to the beat of their own drum, but do overlap on the bigger holidays.
Read this quick guide to make sure you mark off all the term breaks, public holidays and additional days off for school pupils in South Africa on your calendar.
Due to the Southern Hemisphere seasons, the South African school year runs from January to December. This means that the extended summer holiday falls between December and January; not in the middle of the calendar year, like it does in Europe or the US.
There are four main school holidays (and hence four terms) for public schools in South Africa, which fall between the following windows:
A two-week break in March/April (structured around Easter).
A three-week holiday in June/July.
A one-week break in September/October.
A five/six-week holiday in December/January.
All schools in South Africa close shop on public holidays.
There are 12 official public holidays in South Africa. If one falls on a Sunday during term time, the Monday is given off in lieu of this.
Unlike private schools in South Africa, public schools generally try to structure their end-of-term holidays around public holidays. This is discussed in more detail below.
In previous years, schools in coastal provinces had different term dates than inland schools. For example, inland schools opened in the second week of January while coastal schools resumed in the third week.
However, this year, both inland and coastal schools in South Africa opened their doors on Wednesday, 14th January 2026. This was strategically coordinated by the Department of Basic Education to streamline the start of the new school year across the country.
READ: If you’re entering that secondary schooling phase and wondering which high school to send your kids to, read our updated guide on the Top 21 Schools in South Africa.
In 2026, South African students can expect a total of 200 instructional days across the 4 terms.
When the DBE gazetted major amendments to the National Policy for Determining School Calendars for Public Schools in South Africa, it structured the school holidays to include most of this year’s public holidays.
The DBE determined that public holidays falling during the first or last week of school terms disrupted the academic syllabus.
Another reason the DBE has added extra instructional days to the schooling year is to make up for teaching losses the education system suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely hampered teaching capacity and learner hours.
Students and parents can look forward to a total of 16 public holidays this year.
| Date | Holiday |
| 1 January | New Year's Day |
| 21 March | Human Rights Day |
| 3 April | Good Friday |
| 6 April | Family Day |
| 27 April | Freedom Day |
| 1 May | Workers’ Day |
| 15 June | Special School Holiday |
| 16 June | Youth Day |
| 9 August | National Women’s Day |
| 10 August | National Women's Day observed |
| 24 September | Heritage Day |
| 16 December | Day of Reconciliation |
| 25 December | Christmas Day |
| 26 December | Day of Goodwill |
Note: If a South African public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the Monday before or the Friday after the public holiday is declared a school holiday.
The table below spells out this year’s public school calendar, with the figures in brackets representing administration days and the + representing any added school holidays due to public holidays falling on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
| Term | Dates | No. of school weeks | No. of days | No. of public holidays (+ school holidays) | Actual no. of school days |
| 1 | (12) 14 Jan – 27 March | 11 | 53 (55) | 0 | 53 (55) |
| 2 | 8 April – 26 Jun | 12 | 58 | 3+1 | 54 |
| 3 | 21 Jul – 23 Sept | 10 | 47 | 1 | 46 |
| 4 | 6 Oct – (9) 11 Dec | 10 | 47 (49) | 0 | 47 (49) |
| Total | 43 | 200 (204) | 5 |
200 (204) |
Private and international schools in South Africa have different holiday dates from state schools. Some independently-run schools have four terms, while it's quite common for private schools to stretch their syllabus over three terms.
Three-term private schools have 'half-terms' to break up these longer school terms. A half-term is thus a short school holiday in the middle of the term, usually of about 5-7 days. Some private schools also declare long weekends to honour or commemorate a school tradition.
Four-term private schools' holiday dates are close to those of public schools (but rarely the same). We’d love to help you out here and give you more definitive dates, but it’s best to research the private school of interest on your own to find out when their school holidays are.
One thing that all schools in South Africa have in common, whether state, private, three- or four-term, is that term breaks are structured around Easter and Christmas.
At least something we can all agree on – so enjoy the time off with family and friends!
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