South Africa, is officially known as the Republic of South Africa, it is the Southernmost country in

Africa. With a population of 60 million with cultural diversity and beauty. South Africa is away

from major African cities such as Lagos and Cairo and also from Europe, North America, and

Eastern Asia. With over 60 million, the country is the world’s 23 rd most popular nation with an

area of 12,21,037square kilometers. The currency used in this country is South African Rand

(ZAR).

South African public lacks basic education skills and knowledge as compared with other

countries around the world, as their standard of education is not up to mark, there is a huge

opportunity for the growth in the education market in this country.

Some of the facts about the education industry in this country are as follows –

 Approx. 12.7 million students in 30,000 schools. Around 26,000 are public schools,

15,000 are state schools only with primary education, and 450 schools are for special

needs.

 Average ratio is 29:1 in public schools, and 18:1 in public schools.

 There are 1,600 private or independent schools. Over 4% of the learner’s population

attend these schools. Most of these schools are located in Gauteng and Western Cape.

Schooling is compulsory in this country from Grade 1 to 9 i.e. learners start attending school at

the age of 7 years and attend till the age of 15 years. Their education consists of 3 parts –

Foundation Grade (R) – Grade 3, Intermediate – Grade 4 to Grade 6, and Senior – Grade 7 to

Grade 9. The important things you need to take into consideration before starting a preschool in

South Africa are as follows –

 Academic Year – their academic year is divided into 4 terms and it starts mostly from mid

of January and ends at the beginning of December. The dates vary from school to school

one week here or there.

 School Terms – it’s around 200 days of schooling which is between 9 and 12 weeks of

instructions.

 School Holidays – annual holidays are starts in December till mid-January and their

summer holiday is for 5-6 weeks long as school starts in mid of Jan and in Mar/Apr there

is a two-week holiday around Easter, winter holidays in mid-June to mid-July and followed

by 10 days break in autumn. Different schools vary in dates even between public and

private schools.

School hours – Starts in the morning from 07:30 to 08:00 hours to 14:00 to 15:00 hours.

There are only a few schools that provide a meal, otherwise, students carry their own

meal or some schools have a tuck shop, or cooked meals are provided through catering

services. The most school has one mid-day lunch break.

 School transport – bus services are provided at an additional cost, otherwise in South

Africa, parents are asked to use shuttle services or ask the school do they have a lift club

for providing such services.

School uniforms – school uniforms are mandatory, either the school has their own shop in

their vicinity or they are tied up with some of the vendors and they ask the parents to

connect with the respective vendor. The uniform normally compromises of shirts, blazers,

ties and trousers, mainly long trousers for males and skirts for females. There are few

days when students can come without uniforms but that days are mainly for some function

and used for fundraising supporting the charitable cause.

Study Visa – all the pupils coming for studies needs to have a student visa so that they

can get their graduation completed.

School types – depending upon the school, so will be your budget of expenses for setting

up to pull the students, you need to keep everything in view and then decide.

 School fees – Fees for attending public school, it is around 35K/per year whereas with

private it can be double or more and with international it will be more than private schools.

It’s important to do the research well in advance and understand the schooling system before

investing and looking out for the opportunities as quality, area, and cost of education vary from

area to area and many more. There are around 30,000 schools and out of this 26,000 have

received public funding. The majority of the schools are in Gauteng and Western Cape. Many

families who are not able to pay the fees are being taken care of by the government.

South Africa is a growing market for Education, preschools are considered as the kinder garden

in Grade 0. To open a preschool there are certain guidelines that one needs to follow, as it is a

private institute there will no government subsidy available, and have to run independently by

taking into consideration the expenses. No discrimination whatsoever. The school has to be

registered with the Department of Education. The quality of education has to be at par, and no

compromise on the education.