South African schools are set to close for the year on December 11 while teachers close on December 13, marking the end of the fourth term, with exact dates varying by school district.

With these dates in mind, families and educators can begin planning their end-of-year holidays and prepare for the 2025 school year.

Schools are scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, 15 January 2025, marking the start of the new academic year.

This December break allows learners and educators over four weeks to prepare for the year ahead.

To note: The inland provinces are the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West, while the coastal provinces are the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, and Western Cape.

With a unified start date of 15 January and an entire week designated as special school holidays, these updates aim to streamline the academic year and adapt to public holiday overlaps, providing learners and teachers a unique break.

National Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said this was done to minimise traffic congestion on roads.

“The aim is to allocate different dates to the two clusters in the first term so that traffic density before the opening of schools for the new school year is kept within acceptable levels,” he said.

He said the department reviews the impact of the policy every year and considers the number of days that will be available in the coming years based on the national calendar.

“The focus is on ensuring that there is no loss in terms of the number of days allocated for schooling,” he added.

Also read: Major changes to 2025 school calendar: New start dates and extra week off

Here are the changes:

• This start date is two days earlier than the 2024 school year, meaning the academic year will consist of 200 school days.
• 2025 is expected to have 27 standard school holidays, an increase from the 25 holidays in 2024.
• Unlike 2024, 2025 is expected to have three ‘special school holidays’.

These holidays will be on the following dates:

• Tuesday, 29 April;
• Wednesday, 30 April; and
• Friday, 2 May 2025.

Here is the proposed school calendar for 2025. 

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