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

Belgian pupils have a short school career.

South African and Italian pupils spent the longest in school.