SA pupils’ long, long school day
South African children spend about 200 days a year in school, meaning a total of around 2 600 days spent in class from Grade R to matric.
But where do our children rank among their counterparts in other countries?
As pupils around the world return to class for the 2025 school year, Healthnews joined them to investigate the length of the school year and number of grades across different countries.
The findings show that South African children spend the longest in school, along with countries like Italy ( 2 600 days), Iceland (2 520 days) and Czech Republic (2 509 days).
At the other end of the spectrum, Belgian pupils spend just 1 896 days in school over 12 grades, Irish children are in class for 1 939 days and Cypriots for 1 995 days.
Children in the UK (Northern Ireland) spend 2 090 days learning and their American counterparts 2 160 days.
To get the numbers Healthnews used the Organisation of School Time in Europe: Primary and General Secondary Education 2019/20 report by Eurydice for European nations, and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the United States. Additional information was sourced from Scholaro, a website offering educational system data, for grade structures.
In Belgium (Flemish Community), class starts at 8.30am and pupils are out by 3.30pm. They also get a ‘half-day Wednesday’, when pupils finish school by noon and take a mid-week break.
Like with most of Europe, the school year begins in September and ends in June, with several breaks during the year.
Italian classes start at 8am and end at 1pm, but high schools could go to 3pm. Pupils there get an extra year in secondary school, which lasts five years, and finish at 19.
Countries where children spend the least time in school:
Country No of Days
Belgium (Flemish Community)1 896
Ireland1 939
Cyprus1 995
France1 998
Portugal2 076
Latvia2 085
United Kingdom (Northern Ireland)2 090
Croatia2 100
Spain2 100
Estonia2 112
Countries where children spend the most time in school:
South Africa 2 600
Italy2 600
Iceland 2 520
Czech Republic 2 509
Slovakia 2 470
United Kingdom (England) 2 470
Norway 2 470
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Republika Srpska)2 412
Denmark2 400
Albania 2 391
