School calendar 2026 | When do the June-July holidays start?
· The South African
Learners across South Africa will be counting down the days until the end of Term 2 – and the start of the June-July school holidays.
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Term 2 kicked off on 8 April with both inland and coastal schools reopening on the same date.
This uniform national start date continues a policy introduced in 2024, aimed at preventing delays to the academic year and protecting the total number of teaching days.
The term will end on Friday, 26 June.
Learners will then be on a break until Tuesday, 21 July when they will return to their desks for Term 3, which, at 51 school days, is the shortest of the year.
Academic Year Schedule
The 2026 school year is structured as follows:
- Term 1: 14 January – 27 March (53 days)
- Term 2: 8 April – 26 June (54 days)
- Term 3: 21 July – 23 September (51 days)
- Term 4: 6 October – 9 December (47 days)
In total, the calendar includes 205 school days, 28 school holidays, and five public holidays.
Change
However, thanks to the public holiday declared for the Local Government Elections on Wednesday, 4 November, Term 4 will in fact be one day shorter – as will the overall school year.
The next public holiday in South Africa is scheduled to be Youth Day on Tuesday, 16 June.
Monday, 15 June has been declared a ‘special school holiday’ giving learners a four-day long weekend to look forward to.
The Department of Basic Education reviews the school calendar annually to ensure there is no loss of teaching and learning days, providing a consistent framework for students and educators across the country.