{"id":842155,"date":"2025-11-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=842155"},"modified":"2025-11-06T09:53:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:53:58","slug":"the-south-african-private-school-that-offers-excellent-education-for-r620-per-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/842155\/the-south-african-private-school-that-offers-excellent-education-for-r620-per-month\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African private school that offers excellent education for R620 per month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apex Education offers low-cost private schooling through a blended-learning model, combining digital content with in-class facilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its flagship school, Apex Stellenbosch, opened its doors in January 2024, welcoming the first group of Grade 8 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, the school expands with at least one grade, and therefore, by 2028, it will have its first cohort of Grade 12 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apex Stellenbosch\u2019s annual fee for 2025 is R7,440, which breaks down to twelve monthly payments of R620 each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school fees for Apex Stellenbosch will be R7,800 per scholar for the 2026 school year, translating into R650 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is cheaper than most private and high-end government schools, which aligns with Apex Education\u2019s goal of making quality education available to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe aim to provide quality education to the children of South Africa, irrespective of their socio-economic background,\u201d Apex Education said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Caplan, an Associate of the Free Market Foundation and an education specialist, said these smaller private schools are unsung heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that Apex\u2019s model manages to keep fees very low by standardising content and using online and digital resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He conceded that Apex is not the most cutting-edge in terms of pedagogy, but it offers something infinitely better than state schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students work in classes of about 100 at their own pace through an online course with explanatory notes, videos, quizzes, and formative tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their devices are very cheap – basic Chromebooks – and each class has one teacher and two assistants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blended learning model<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This blended learning model, which combines online and in-person learning, was developed through trial and error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apex started in 2018 as a brick-and-mortar no-fee public school. With the advent of COVID-19, they transitioned online and provided students with access to data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this period, Apex developed its own Learner Management System, which formed the foundation of any online school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in July 2020, as schools returned, Apex transitioned to alternate days of in-person and online learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, they trialled their first blended learning model. Their own analysis showed that the results remained about the same as those in traditional schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was then expanded and continues to grow, with a second Apex School set to start up in January 2023, offering larger, purpose-built classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They became a low-fee private school called Stellenbosch Apex and extended the blended learning model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh Zoia, the Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East of One World Network of Schools, said the results are astonishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you told me a school was educating 100 learners with one teacher and two facilitators at the cost of public schooling in South Africa, I\u2019d call you a dreamer,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you said these learners were outperforming their peers in traditional classes, I\u2019d be even more doubtful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is precisely what Apex is doing, and the results are there to demonstrate its effectiveness. \u201cThey are proving it’s possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school reported no stolen devices, a 98% attendance rate, and a 10% improvement in the pass rate in Maths and English compared to government schools in the Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apex Stellenbosch photos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apex Education offers low-cost private schooling through a blended-learning model, combining digital content with in-class facilitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":842163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[24010,24011,4336,24012],"class_list":["post-842155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-apex-education","tag-apex-stellenbosch","tag-free-market-foundation","tag-michael-caplan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842155","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842181,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842155\/revisions\/842181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}