High School in South Africa

As an exchange student you will be placed in an English and/or Afrikaans speaking school. In most South African schools it is mandatory to wear a school uniform.

In South Africa, studies at high school level are called “Standards” and they maintain a high academic level. South African students study five years of high school, Standards 6-10. Standard 10, which is the graduate year, is also called “Matric”. If you choose to study in South Africa, you will take Standard 8, 9 or 10.

Students must study 6 subjects, whereof English and Afrikaans are compulsory. The other 4 subject choices are Maths, Biology,Geography and History. Sometimes students can also choose subjects such as Business Economics, Computing, Physical science, Art, Travel & Tourism, Speech, Drama, Technical drawing, Xhosa, Zulu, Music etc.

Schools can be English, Afrikaans or so called "parallell medium schools", which means pupils are taught in both English and Afrikaans.

The schoolday normally begins at 8am and finishes at 2pm. On Fridays many schools finish one hour earlier. The school year starts in January.