First day of school around the world

[Volker Dirr]

Hallo.

What is the first day of school around the world?
Here in Germany it is for example officially 1. August; but because summer holidays are different in several federal states of Germany it starts in fact between 1. August and mid of September.
What's about your country?

I will start a small table here and add you answers: (last updated 11.05.2018)

Country	Start time of a school year
Algeria	Early September
Brazil	February
Germany	1. August (in fact between 1. August and mid September)
Morocco	Early September
Namibia	January
Romania	15. September

[Bobby Wise]

We have a 3 trimester system in Namibia. Every year the commencement dates of each trimester will differ slightly.

2018

1st Trimester start 10 January
2nd Trimester start 21 May
3rd Trimester start 03 September

[Volker Dirr]

That is for university only or even elementary school?
I fear I must simplify my table a bit, since it will be too full if I add all those variants.
In fact at German schools there are 2 terms.
1st term always like I wrote already.
2nd term always end of January or begin of February.

So to be a bit more prises I will only add "First day of school" if (nearly all) students start the first time at that school. I guess normally you won't start the 2nd semester or trimester at school.
(At least at German primary, secondary and high schools. Nearly all students starts with the 1st one. It is different at universities. I don't have exact number, but I guess more than 20% doesn't start with the "official" 1st semester.)

[Liviu Lalescu]

When I was in school, it was like this:

School years 1-4: 15 September (elementary)
School years 5-8: 15 September (gymnasium)
School years 9-12: 15 September (high-school).

These were divided into three trimesters. Now, we have two semesters, I think.

College (faculty) - I did 5 years: 1 October. Then and now 2 semesters, I think.

The main holiday was summer, 3 months. And we had winter holiday - 2 or 3 weeks. Now we also have spring holiday, 1-2 weeks - not sure. I cannot remember the spring holiday in my school

So in school - high-school a secondary beginning was in January, and in college (faculty) a secondary beginning was in February.

[rodolforg]

In Brazil, it has no fixed date, but it starts in February until beginning of July. It resumes in August until December - then come holidays and summer vacations.

College usually starts in March, but February is a possibility.

[Benahmed Abdelkrim]

in Algeria, the school year is composed of three trimesters;

   the first starts on the first Sunday of the first week of September ;this year on September 3rd.

   the second begins after a holiday of 2 weeks; this year on January 7, 2018.

   the third also begins after a 2-weeks vacation; this year on April 1, 2018.
the school year will usually close on June 30 of each year.

[Benahmed Abdelkrim]

I think the same system (or almost) that is applied in Morocco.

[Volker Dirr]

Interesting. I added all 3 answers in the first table.
So i guess there are mainly 2 variants in the world:
a) Start after (summer) holiday. So around August and September.
b) Start after (winter) holiday. So around January and February.

i wonder if there is a country that will start for example in December; or in March, even holiday was only in February and January was still the old school year.

[Bobby Wise]

All schools except I think 1 school in Namibia start on the same date. That includes Pre Primary, Primary and Secondary - State and Private schools. The only exception to this may be Waldorf School. It is a private school, but I am not sure how they work.

All of the state schools as well as a few private schools in Namibia follow the Cambridge curriculum, while most of the private Afrikaans schools, some of the English private schools and I believe 1 of the German private schools use the IEB (Independent Examination Board) curriculum. I am not sure what curriculum the Deutsche Hoer Privaatshule (DHPS) use.

I think the universities, colleges and technicons have a 2 semester system.

[Volker Dirr]

Intresting.

By the way it is not "hoer". That is also german. Translation "hear". So i thought it is a school for deaf pupils. But i saw in their home page it is "höhere". Translation "high".
So "Deutsche höhere Privatschule" is "German higher private school". Sounds a bit strange, since they even have got a kindergarten and primary school (and also a residential school). So nearly everything.

Walddorfschulen are avaiable also here (some guys call it also "Rudolf Steiner Schools". Those schools are pretty different. a lot of practical subjects. and the timetables look different. Less differrent subjects per week, but instead of that they change the timetables every 2-6 weeks, so an other subject become the new "core subject" for some time.

[Bobby Wise]

Hello Volker, yes you're right about both:

The German Private School was, before we became independent from South Africa, just a high school. After independence the demand for the private school grew so they started a primary and then a pre primary. But as you mentioned the name remained DHPS. It was financed and is still partly financed from Germany I understand. In fact there is a plaque in front of the school, which indicates the exact kilometers from the school to Berlin.

The Waldorf school has a strange/different way of doing things tha all the other locals school.

[vijaya]

In India between 1st to 15 of June for Indian boards. and 1st August for international boards

[Volker Dirr]

Interesting.
Maybe because the local Indian school starts historical with start of the monsoon while the international schools took the starting time from the other countries?