{"id":2305,"date":"2026-01-04T08:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/2305\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:28:21","slug":"when-will-schools-open-for-term-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/2305\/","title":{"rendered":"When will schools open for term 1?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parents planning the year can now lock in key dates after the Department of Basic Education confirmed the full 2026 public school calendar. <\/p>\n

The school year will begin in mid-January and run through to early December, with clearly defined term breaks and public holidays.<\/p>\n

Term dates parents should note<\/p>\n

The school year will officially begin on 14 January, marking the start of the first term. Learners will attend classes until 27 March, followed by a short autumn break from 28 March to 7 April.<\/p>\n

The second term will start on 8 April and conclude on 26 June. Several public holidays fall within this period, including Freedom Day on 27 April, Workers\u2019 Day on 1 May and Youth Day on 16 June. Schools will also observe a special school holiday on 15 June, before closing for the mid-year break from 27 June to 20 July.<\/p>\n

Classes will resume for the third term on 21 July, running until 23 September.<\/p>\n

The fourth and final term will begin on 6 October and end on 9 December.<\/p>\n

Preparing households for the new school year<\/p>\n

With dates now confirmed, families across South Africa<\/a> have begun preparing for the return to classrooms.<\/p>\n

The clarity provided by the calendar allows households to budget, plan leave and arrange transport well in advance, especially for working parents who rely on school schedules.<\/p>\n

Policy changes shaping the 2026 calendar<\/p>\n

The department confirmed the end of staggered calendars, meaning inland and coastal schools will now operate on the same schedule.<\/p>\n

According to the gazetted policy, \u201cschools must open in the third week of January,\u201d bringing uniformity nationwide and ending the system where provinces started the school year at different times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents planning the year can now lock in key dates after the Department of Basic Education confirmed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[305,306,2238,2239,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-2305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-important","10":"tag-school","11":"tag-school-calender","12":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}