{"id":780976,"date":"2024-07-05T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=780976"},"modified":"2024-07-05T18:02:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T16:02:19","slug":"2025-school-calendar-including-3-special-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/780976\/2025-school-calendar-including-3-special-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 school calendar &#8211; including 3 &#8216;special holidays&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The current calendar for South African public schools shows that there will be an extra three holidays in 2025 thanks to &#8216;special school holidays&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Basic Education has released the proposed school calendar for 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the calendar, the 2025 school year will commence on 15 January and conclude on 12 December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This start date is two days earlier than the 2024 school year, meaning the academic year will consist of 200 school days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that 2025 is expected to have 27 standard school holidays, which is an increase from the 25 holidays in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite this increase, the total number of school holidays is still fewer than in previous years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, unlike 2024, next year is expected to have three special school holidays. These holidays will be on the following dates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tuesday, 29 April<\/strong>;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wednesday, 30 April<\/strong>; and <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Friday, 2 May 2025<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In South Africa, the Department of Basic Education and relevant stakeholders are allowed to grant special school holidays whenever they deem them appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2025, the Department of Basic Education and relevant stakeholders agreed to allow students and teachers a special school holiday during this time due to Freedom Day being observed on Monday, 28 April\u2014despite the official date of the holiday being the 27th. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is because, According to section 2(1) of the Act, \u201cwhenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday shall be a public holiday\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the same week, Worker&#8217;s Day falls on Thursday, 1 May 2025. This resulted in the Department of Basic Education and relevant stakeholders writing off the whole week by signing off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday as special school holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2025 calendar will also observe six official public holidays during the school term compared to the two observed this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is because most public holidays in 2024 will take place during school holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The department has had to make these changes to the calendar to make up for teaching losses felt during the Covid-19 pandemic, which severely hampered teaching capacity and learner hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2025-Calendar.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"811\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2025-Calendar-811x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-615123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2025-Calendar-811x1024.png 811w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2025-Calendar-238x300.png 238w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2025-Calendar-768x969.png 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/2025-Calendar.png 996w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Other notable changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2025 school year also marks the deadline for the recently re-gazetted regulations that require all schools in the country to meet minimum energy, sanitation, and infrastructure standards\u2014or include them in their active plans\u2014within the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2024 regulations were originally gazetted&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/774501\/new-regulations-to-fix-public-schools-in-south-africa-with-tight-deadlines\/\"><strong>at the end of May<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;but were withdrawn without explanation a week later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previously, schools had up to 18 months to meet some of the regulations&#8217; requirements. This has been&nbsp;<strong>reduced to 12 months<\/strong> (within 2025). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the new regulations, schools without access to power, water, or sanitation will have 12 months (i.e., until mid-2025) to comply with the regulations related to these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, School buildings built from mud, asbestos, metal and wood must be replaced with structures that comply with the regulations within 12 months of the gazette being published (i.e., mid-2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Schools that also do not have adequate perimeter fencing to comply with the norms and standards have 12 months (mid-2025) to comply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"WSepACBcRB\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/780619\/new-regulations-to-fix-schools-in-south-africa-with-a-much-tighter-deadline\/\">New regulations to fix schools in South Africa \u2013 with a much tighter deadline<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;New regulations to fix schools in South Africa \u2013 with a much tighter deadline&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/780619\/new-regulations-to-fix-schools-in-south-africa-with-a-much-tighter-deadline\/embed\/#?secret=VAkwCuvESK#?secret=WSepACBcRB\" data-secret=\"WSepACBcRB\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/780000\/29-new-laws-waiting-for-ramaphosas-signature-including-big-changes-for-electricity-and-schools\/\">29 new laws waiting for Ramaphosa\u2019s signature \u2013 including big changes for electricity and schools<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed calendar for 2025 shows three &#8216;special school holidays&#8217; for schools\u2014holidays that are not observed in 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":644897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853],"class_list":["post-780976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780976"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781262,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780976\/revisions\/781262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}