Academic Term - South Africa

South Africa

All South African public schools have a four-term school year as determined by the national Department of Education. Each term is between 10 and 11 weeks long. The terms are roughly structured as follows:

First Term

• Begins mid-January and ends before Good Friday (Usually in March or April).
• Followed by the Easter Holidays, which usually lasts 10 days.

Second Term

• Begins mid-April and ends June
• Followed by the Winter Holidays, which usually lasts 21 days.

Third Term

• Begins mid-July and ends September
• Followed by the September Holidays, also sometimes called the Spring Holidays, and usually lasts 10 days.

Fourth Term

• Begins early October and ends early December
• Followed by the Christmas Holidays, also sometimes called the December or Summer Holidays, and usually lasts approximately 40 days.

The academic year is approximately 200 school days in duration and runs from January to December. Private schools follow a similar calendar, but slightly alter it according to their academic and religious needs. The dates of the school year for coastal schools is slightly different to that for inland schools.

The National Education Department proposed a five-week long school break in June–July 2010 for the 2010 Soccer World Cup-hosted in South Africa-to avoid pupil and teacher absenteeism and a chaotic transport system.

South African universities have a year consisting of two semesters, with the first semester running from early February to early June, and the second semester from late July to late November. Each semester consists of twelve or thirteen teaching weeks, interrupted by a one-week short vacation, and followed by three or four weeks of examinations. In the first semester the short vacation often falls around the Easter weekend, while in the second semester it occurs in early September.