Department for Basic Education (DBE) Minister Angie Motshekga has published the amended school calendar for 2020. The four school terms for 2020 are now gazetted as follows:

Term 1: 15 January – 18 March
Term 2: 8 June – 7 August
Term 3: 12 August – 23 September
Term 4: 5 October – 15 December
This new calendar means that between Term 2 and Term 3 there will only be a single day’s holiday, as Monday 10 August is a public holiday.

However, to provide some compensation for this, Term 3 will only comprise seven weeks. This calendar has been orchestrated in such a way that there will only be one public holiday throughout 2020 that results in a day taken off school – taking place on 16 June.

Delayed reopening
Schools were closed on 18 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, following a lengthy hiatus, were set to reopen on 1 June for Grade 7 and 12 learners.However, this date was postponed by a week because the majority of schools were not ready to take learners. Schools finally reopened to these learners on 8 June, although schools that are not ready to accept these learners in accordance with the guidelines set out by the DBE are not allowed to do so.DBE director-general Mathanzima Hubert Mweli said that according to DBE data, 97.6% of South African schools were ready to accept Grade 7 and 12 learners as of 7 June.