Pupils in inland provinces will return to their school desks on Wednesday, 11 January for the new school year, while coastal schools will reopen on Wednesday, 18 January.

In the inland provinces of the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West, the first term will run until Friday, 24 March and will include a special school holiday on Monday, 20 March, ahead of Human Rights Day.

For the coastal provinces of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Western Cape, the first term will run until Friday, 31 March and will also include a special school holiday on Monday, 20 March, ahead of Human Rights Day.

Pupils in all provinces will start the second term on Wednesday, 12 April. There will be a special school holiday on Friday, 28 April, after Freedom Day, and the term will come to an end on Friday, 23 June.

The second half of the school year will start on Tuesday, 18 July. The third term will end on Friday, 29 September. The fourth term will run from Tuesday, 10 October to Wednesday, 13 December.

Pupils will also have days off for public holidays over the Easter weekend (Friday, 7 April to Tuesday, 11 April), Worker's Day on Monday, 1 May, Youth Day on Friday, 16 June, Women's Day on Wednesday, 9 August, and Monday, 25 September, following Heritage Day.

Next year's school year will consist of 199 teaching days, with an additional four days assigned to administrators between the start and end of the school year.

This will see teachers returning to schools two days before pupils – on Monday, 9 January in inland provinces and Monday, 16 January in coastal provinces. The school year for teachers will end on Friday, 15 December 2023.