Here is when the three-week holidays end for the third term
After a three-week break, schools are set to reopen next Tuesday, with students expected to return.
According to the Department of Basic Education, the third term will commence on 22 July 2025. The term will last for 11 weeks and conclude on Friday, 3 October.
There will be one public holiday in the term, with Heritage Day falling on Wednesday, 24 September 2025.
Students will have one day of rest and return to school on Thursday, September 25, to complete the week.
Here's a comprehensive overview of the key dates on the 2025 school calendar to help parents stay ahead of the game.
FIRST TERM:
Schools start: 15 January 2025;
Schools close: 28 March 2025;
Public holidays: New Year's Day (1 January 2025), Human Rights Day (21 March 2025); and
School holidays: 29 March to 7 April 2025.
ALSO READ: Water and electricity cut at almost 300 Gauteng schools over non-payment
SECOND TERM:
Schools start: 8 April 2025;
Schools close: 17 June 2025;
Public holidays: Good Friday (18 April 2025), Family Day (21 April 2025), Freedom Day (27 April 2025), Workers' Day (1 May 2025), Youth Day (16 June 2025);
Special school holidays: 29 April to 2 May 2025; and
School holidays: 18 June to 8 July 2025.
THIRD TERM:
School start: 22 July 2025;
School closes: 3 October 2025;
Public holidays: National Women's Day (9 August 2025), Heritage Day (24 September 2025); and
School holidays: 6 to 10 October 2025.
FOURTH TERM:
School start: 13 October 2025;
School closes: 10 December 2025;
Administration days: 11 to 12 December 2025; and
Public holidays: Day of Reconciliation (16 December 2025), Christmas Day (25 December 2025), Day of Goodwill (26 December 2025).
NOW READ: Gauteng schools urged to settle electricity and water bills
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Daily Maverick
18-07-2025
- Daily Maverick
Treasury's decision not to allocate extra funding imperils compulsory Grade R roll-out
While the Bela Act makes Grade R attendance compulsory, the National Treasury's refusal to allocate additional funding leaves provinces struggling to deliver on the promise of universal early childhood education. The National Treasury has turned down the Department of Basic Education's request for additional funds to implement compulsory Grade R schooling. Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube confirmed the Treasury's stance during her 2025/26 budget vote speech in Parliament, acknowledging that although the Department of Basic Education's budget rose by more than 8% to over R35-billion, it fell short of meeting the cost required for universal access to Grade R schooling. Gwarube did not mince words about the consequences: provinces must absorb the significant costs from within already stretched budgets. The enactment of the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act in December 2024 marked a watershed moment, officially making Grade R attendance compulsory for all children in SA. The law was 'the culmination of over three decades of careful policy development, expert recommendations and legislative process', said Equal Education Law Centre legal researchers Daniel Peter Al-Naddaf and Katherine Sutherland. 'This year marks 24 years since Minister Kader Asmal launched Education White Paper 5 on Early Childhood Development, which recorded Grade R as the first year of formal education. This recommendation originated from the South African Preschool Study Team in August 1994 — almost 31 years ago,' they said. 'It took six years to reach a White Paper and another 23 years to become law through the Bela Act in September 2024. Compulsory Grade R was not a rushed policy decision. 'Yet, after 30 years of planning, implementation is failing due to lack of funding. The irony is that the very government that spent three decades developing this right now renders it meaningless through budgetary neglect.' Al-Naddaf and Sutherland noted that basic education is a constitutionally protected right that must be fulfilled immediately. By including Grade R in this definition, the law established not only a duty for parents to send their children to school, but also an immediate right for children to receive this education, regardless of when it might be convenient for the government. Taking from Peter to pay Paul During her address, Gwarube said the Department of Basic Education was unable to secure additional funding from the National Treasury for the undertaking, meaning that provinces must fund it from their allocated budgets. 'Our goal is clear: every child must enter Grade R ready to learn in all respects. We urgently need additional funding for compulsory Grade R, as required by the Bela Act,' she said. Al-Naddaf and Sutherland observed that, although there was a real increase this year in the consolidated Basic Education budget when measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), per learner spending declined when calculated using a sector-specific inflation rate, the Basic Education Price Index (Bepi). The Bepi provides a more accurate reflection of true spending power in the sector, as it captures factors like rising teacher salaries — the main cost driver — better than CPI adjustments alone. 'When factoring in this education-specific inflation measure, alongside projected learner enrolment growth and the formalisation of compulsory Grade R, it becomes evident that per-learner spending in real terms will decline to its lowest level since at least the 2013/14 financial year,' said Al-Naddaf and Sutherland. When asked how ready provinces were to fund and implement compulsory Grade R from their current budgets, Al-Naddaf and Sutherland said that, for many years, provinces had been expected to do more with fewer resources. This ongoing strain has left provinces, particularly those already facing funding challenges, in a vulnerable position as they try to fulfil the new mandate. The department has estimated that implementing universal Grade R will cost R17-billion. 'After a decade of chronic underfunding and budget cuts, it is unreasonable for the Treasury to expect provinces to somehow absorb a R17-billion obligation within budgets already cut to the bone, especially when provinces derive around 97% of their income from the national government,' said Al-Naddaf and Sutherland. 'It is estimated that the education system will need to incorporate an additional 200,000 Grade R learners to realise universal Grade R, and costs that provinces must bear to achieve this include additional Grade R classrooms; the upskilling of underqualified Grade R practitioners; furniture; playground equipment; learner packs; per learner funding for school budgets; and Grade R educator salaries.' They noted that several provincial education departments were at risk of becoming insolvent this financial year, attributing this to years of chronic underfunding and mounting obligations imposed without matching resources. Under-resourced schools The Gauteng Department of Education is wrestling with a R31.1-billion infrastructure backlog, forcing learners into crumbling buildings or overcrowded classrooms. This gargantuan backlog does not include the 2,000 new classrooms required for the compulsory roll-out of Grade R. In the Northern Cape, education officials say it will take at least five years to address the current shortfall of 252 classrooms. Meanwhile, Limpopo appears, on paper, to have nearly universal Grade R access, with only nine schools lacking Grade R. 'However, if one looks at the number of enrolled Grade R learners in the province (128,721) and the total number of Grade R educators and practitioners (2,151), this would amount to an average teacher-to-educator ratio of 60 learners to one teacher,' said Al-Naddaf and Sutherland. 'Having Grade R available on paper is fundamentally different from meaningful implementation — true access requires quality education with adequate resources, and it is clear that quality education cannot be achieved under these severely under-resourced conditions.' Al-Naddaf and Sutherland noted that many provinces had reported having to make trade-offs and redirecting funds from other vital programmes to fund universal Grade R. The effects ripple across the education system: Scholar transport budgets are slashed, making it harder for children in rural or remote areas to get to school. The National School Nutrition Programme, meant to guarantee a basic meal to every child, now stretches thin resources to feed growing numbers of Grade R learners, risking a decline in the quality or quantity of food available. Legislation versus purse strings Gwarube acknowledged these difficult choices, reflecting in Parliament: 'We operate under extremely difficult fiscal conditions which require innovation, creativity and firm financial discipline in all our provinces. 'This is a clarion call to all our stakeholders in the sector and PEDs [provincial education departments] to tighten belts, accelerate delivery and guard against falling foul of their constitutional responsibilities of delivering quality education to all.' Despite the funding setback, Gwarube outlined the department's plans to maximise its allocated resources. Early childhood development (ECD) is a particular focus, with the ECD conditional grant rising to R1.7-billion. Of this, R230-million is earmarked for a nutrition pilot programme targeted at the youngest learners, while R162-million will be invested in infrastructure for ECD programmes. Gwarube also highlighted several targeted allocations designed to address specific educational challenges. More than R4.6-billion has been allocated to curriculum policy support and monitoring, and R1.2-billion will go towards the school workbook programme, ensuring that learners from Grade R to Grade 9 receive the necessary learning materials. The minister announced that R57-million had been earmarked to advance mother-tongue-based bilingual education. However, these pockets of targeted funding can't offset the overall resources required to give every child quality access to Grade R schooling, as the implementation of the Bela Act rests uneasily on fragile fiscal ground. Al-Naddaf and Sutherland raised a constitutional warning: 'Treasury's refusal suggests that it believes it has the power to block the implementation of legislation by declining to fund it, even when this contravenes the rights of children.' This, they argue, undermines the law and the 'immediately realisable' right to basic education enshrined in the Constitution. 'We are most concerned about the hundreds of thousands of children who will be affected. It is vital that we consider what it means for democracy and the rule of law when the Treasury is effectively able to veto a law by refusing to fund it. It may be education today, but what guarantee does anyone have that their rights will have the funding to mean something?' Daily Maverick sent questions to the National Treasury, the Department of Basic Education and Gwarube's spokesperson. No responses had been received by the time of publication. DM
The Citizen
16-07-2025
- The Citizen
Here is when the three-week holidays end for the third term
There will be one public holiday in the term, with Heritage Day falling on Wednesday, 24 September. Find out more... After a three-week break, schools are set to reopen next Tuesday, with students expected to return. According to the Department of Basic Education, the third term will commence on 22 July 2025. The term will last for 11 weeks and conclude on Friday, 3 October. There will be one public holiday in the term, with Heritage Day falling on Wednesday, 24 September 2025. Students will have one day of rest and return to school on Thursday, September 25, to complete the week. Here's a comprehensive overview of the key dates on the 2025 school calendar to help parents stay ahead of the game. FIRST TERM: Schools start: 15 January 2025; Schools close: 28 March 2025; Public holidays: New Year's Day (1 January 2025), Human Rights Day (21 March 2025); and School holidays: 29 March to 7 April 2025. ALSO READ: Water and electricity cut at almost 300 Gauteng schools over non-payment SECOND TERM: Schools start: 8 April 2025; Schools close: 17 June 2025; Public holidays: Good Friday (18 April 2025), Family Day (21 April 2025), Freedom Day (27 April 2025), Workers' Day (1 May 2025), Youth Day (16 June 2025); Special school holidays: 29 April to 2 May 2025; and School holidays: 18 June to 8 July 2025. THIRD TERM: School start: 22 July 2025; School closes: 3 October 2025; Public holidays: National Women's Day (9 August 2025), Heritage Day (24 September 2025); and School holidays: 6 to 10 October 2025. FOURTH TERM: School start: 13 October 2025; School closes: 10 December 2025; Administration days: 11 to 12 December 2025; and Public holidays: Day of Reconciliation (16 December 2025), Christmas Day (25 December 2025), Day of Goodwill (26 December 2025). NOW READ: Gauteng schools urged to settle electricity and water bills
Daily Maverick
16-07-2025
- Daily Maverick
We will have to swallow bitter medicine to fix the financial health of our education system
This time last year, I took an oath to assume the office of South Africa's Minister of Basic Education. I did so with a clear conscience that I would hold this office with dignity and to the very best of my abilities. My first order of business was to listen deeply, to be guided by the evidence, and to reform strategically. Over the last 12 months, I have travelled the length and breadth of our country. I have, on average, visited one school per week. I've met provincial leaders and officials, school principals, teachers, parents and, most importantly, learners. Their stories and realities have shaped everything we have done since. Our work has been guided by a simple, yet powerful statistic: 80% of children in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language by Grade 4. This has told me that we need to get the basics right. If our children cannot read for meaning by age 10, if they face unsafe sanitation, if they come to school hungry or unsupported in their earliest years, then everything else we do will fall apart as it is based on weak foundations. Strategic reorientation of the basic education system Based on the low levels of literacy and numeracy, we launched a major shift in how the Department of Basic Education approaches its work: the strategic reorientation towards improving the quality of foundational learning. Chasing surface metrics, such as the matric pass rate, will not move the needle in terms of the number of learners leaving the system with the skills needed to pursue further studies or enter the world of work. We need to get the foundations right if we are to see improved education outcomes across the system. Foundational learning cannot be a peripheral concern and must therefore be the centrepiece of our basic education reform agenda. Early childhood development: laying the first brick in the foundation In February 2025, I co-convened the Bana Pele Roadmap Summit with Business Leadership South Africa, which was opened by President Cyril Ramaphosa. This was a seminal moment in mobilising stakeholders around the importance of early learning. In partnership with Takalani Sesame, we are rolling out the Bana Pele Mass Registration Drive – a national campaign to register, formalise and support early childhood development centres, especially in the most underprivileged communities. Our goal here is bold: we want to register 10,000 centres by the end of the current financial year, to formalise them and to support them to comply with their local government health and safety requirements. We will furthermore subsidise them with R17 per child per day to ensure their financial viability. This is proposed to increase to R24 in the new budget. We won't stop there. We will also support them with age-appropriate learning and teaching materials required for children to follow a structured curriculum. Finally, we will then upskill practitioners to acquire a teaching qualification that would allow them to deliver a quality curriculum. In the Foundation Phase, we have continued rolling out the Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education programme, training teachers in bilingual methods and providing quality support materials. The Funza Lushaka Bursary Scheme and teacher development efforts are being augmented to prioritise Foundation Phase teaching, aligned to our focus on literacy and numeracy. Furthermore, we are reviewing Post Provisioning Norms to improve teacher distribution and buffer provinces against budget pressures. We are also updating the National Catalogue for grades 1 to 3 to ensure learners receive high-quality, curriculum-aligned materials. Without these foundations, a child will face challenges taking on and excelling in gateway subjects like mathematics and science, or technical, vocational and occupational subjects. This, in turn, impacts on their ability to pursue higher learning and meaningful work opportunities. The mere introduction of entrepreneurship education, coding and robotics and the like is no magic wand. These subjects become accessible only when learners are literate and numerate. Nutrition reform with integrity We made a bold decision to halt a R10-billion per year tender that would have hyper-centralised the National School Nutrition Programme in the hands of a single service provider, thereby risking the wellbeing of 9.6 million learners who depend on the NSNP for their daily meal. The current model of delivering school nutrition will continue, and we will strengthen provincial capacity to deliver while we work on a revised, balanced delivery strategy. Infrastructure justice: sanitation first We are turning the page on pit toilets and moving away from one of the most painful chapters in our country: when children would fall and drown in pit toilets in democratic South Africa. In April, I announced that 96% of the pit latrines identified by the 2018 Safe Initiative audit had been eradicated. Today, that has increased to 97%. This eradication project is about dignity, safety, and our moral obligation to learners and their teachers. The work of identifying and eradicating unsafe sanitation facilities not identified by the Safe Initiative must continue by provincial education departments (PEDs). What the DBE is doing to support this: (a) Safe Schools Act; (b) focus on maintenance; (c) supporting PEDs with planning, development and maintenance; and (d) reviewing the Regulations on the Minimum Uniform Norms and Standards. A hard look at provincial finances In September 2024, we undertook a deep financial analysis of all nine provincial education departments. I will not hide the reality of our financial situation from the people of South Africa. In November 2024, I shared the findings of that analysis and informed the public that we are facing a fiscal crisis. Ten years of austerity measures have left our sector with a deep financial hole. If the current funding levels continue, we will see seven of the nine PEDs fall into the red and be unable to fund their budgets by 2028. I can assure South Africans that we will not fold our arms and lament the poor financial decisions of the previous administration. We are putting in place financial recovery plans and we are working with provincial and national treasuries to protect education funding and to ensure that provincial education departments can get back on their feet. I must again be honest with South Africans, this will be a painful exercise; we will have to swallow bitter medicine to fix the financial health of our education system. We will conduct nationwide audits to root out ghost teachers and ghost learners in our system; we will have to right-size departments to ensure personnel costs go back to under 80% of the budget. We find ourselves in a mess not of our making, but the mess is ours to resolve. Institutional and policy reform: the National Education and Training Council To enhance policy development in the sector, we are operationalising the National Education and Training Council. This advisory body will provide evidence-based recommendations to me as minister on a range of complex school education-related issues. These will include a review of the resourcing model applicable to schooling; exploring ways to reduce administrative burdens on teachers; and considering whether the progression and promotion requirements remain fit for purpose. This is not just another council of government. It is a structure provided for in law comprising specialists from a variety of disciplines related to education who will volunteer their expertise, knowledge and experience to ensure that national education policies are responsive to the realities on the ground. Looking ahead This first year in office has laid the groundwork and shown our strategic intent. But reform is about action, not just intent. It will take political courage and cross-sector partnerships to make this strategic reorientation a success. We must be willing to break resistance to the reforms the sector so desperately needs. We must accelerate support for teachers, scale early learning innovations and stabilise provincial spending. My message to every parent, teacher, learner and policymaker is this: we are building strong foundations for our schooling system that must work for our children. Let's walk this road together. DM
