School Holidays in South Africa for 2024

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 2024, 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.

Annual School Holidays

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, and 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, that 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, and 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.

Coastal versus Inland

In previous years, schools in coastal provinces had different term dates to the inland schools. For example, inland schools opened in the second week of January while coastal schools resumed in the third week.

The main reasoning behind this is to minimise traffic congestion on the roads and reduce accidents.

Nonetheless, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) decided that all public schools across the country would start and end their school terms on the same date in 2024, due to it being an election year. This is so that schools could be used as voting stations.

Due to the elections in 2024, both public and private schools had the same term dates so that schools could be used a voting stations.

READ: If you’re entering that secondary schooling phase and wondering which high school to send your kids to, be sure to read our updated guide on the Top 21 Schools in South Africa!

Teaching Days

Altogether, there are usually around 200 days in the South African scholastic year. In 2024 however there are a total of 203 instructional days – four more than in 2022 and 2023.

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 - of which there are an extra two in 2024.

The DBE determined that public holidays falling during the first or last week of school terms caused a disruption to 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.

Public and School Holidays 2024

Due to the General Elections being declared a public holiday in 2024, and a public holiday granted in lieu of Youth Day falling on a Sunday, there are 14 public holidays in 2024:

Public Holidays 2024

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 Public School Calendar

Due to some of the aforementioned adjustments, public schools only lose two days to public holidays in 2024 – one day each in term two and three respectively.

This is in comparison to the eight school days pupils “lost” in 2022 and 2023.

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.

Private School Holidays

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, are term breaks structured around Easter and Christmas.

At least something we can all agree on – so enjoy the time off with family and friends!