Private school group Curro Holdings has seen lower enrolments and a decrease in the number of pupils in lower grades as families face economic hardships. This is despite the group recording good overall academic performances and sporting achievements.
The country’s biggest independent school group recorded a 1% increase in new enrolments at the beginning of the 2025 academic year, while showing a decline of more than 1,000 total enrolments compared to 2024.
Curro CEO Cobus Loubser said that in 2024, 73,159 pupils were enrolled at their 189 schools, but the number dropped to 72,109 this year.
He said this reflected the financial conditions parents face, despite lower interest rates.
“We think it's pretty much a cyclical matter that perhaps represents the reality that many South African families face from that perspective. Unfortunately, while we understand that they are under pressure and are doing what we can to assist, we see some learners leaving.”
The school also found that while its retention rate for pupils already in the system was higher than 2023, some continue to exit the system.
Of course, we would like to retain those learners, but I think we've also got to be disciplined and how we deploy capital. And I think fundamentally, most of those schools are landlocked. So, they are in the kind of environment where there's not much space adjacent to them, which is a pity.
— Cobus Loubser, Curro CEO
In the period under review, Curro saw 6,760 pupils leave as a result of financial issues and other unspecified reasons.
Loubser said a majority of those leaving were in the lower grades. In an attempt to assist these families, Curro implemented fee reductions, fee freezing or family discounts where possible, said Curro.
The group also recorded 2,000 pupils leaving due to their families relocating to other cities or countries.
Others completed grade 7 but moved to different schools because Curro didn't have an adjacent high school they could attend.
“Of course, we would like to retain those learners, but I think we've also got to be disciplined and how we deploy capital. And I think fundamentally, most of those schools are landlocked. So, they are in the kind of environment where there's not much space adjacent to them, which is a pity,” he said.
Loubser said they also had their largest group of matric pupils exit in 2024, a total of 4,900.
“2024 was actually an exceptional year for Curro and the evidence of it is in record matric results, record levels of participation in sports and cultural activities, remarkable achievements of excellence in academics, sports and culture,” he said.
Curro made headlines last year after one of its students, Bayanda Walaza won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics. Walaza was in matric at Curro Hazeldean in Tshwane and was part of the successful South African 4x100m relay team that included Akani Simbine.
The group attributed this success to Curro increasing spending on extramural activities — including sports — in the first half of 2024. While Curro could not provide an exact figure on how much it spent on extramural activities, it said the school had a variety of models, with spending dependent on each school’s needs and aspirations.
Despite challenges with enrolments, the group’s revenue increased by 8% to R5.1bn for the year ended December. Headline earnings per share increased by 13%, and dividends were also higher by 13% at R16.60c per share.
Curro’s total tuition fee revenue increased by 7%, while total employee costs increased by 6%, while other expenses increased by 6%.
This is the second consecutive year that the private school group has generated cash higher than its capital expenditure budget.
“From a finance perspective, those are very positive, and I think, respectable kind of achievements in what is and what remains a very constrained and tough consumer environment,” said Loubser.
For the 2025 academic year, the school said it had set aside R660m to invest in capex.
Meanwhile, some of the group's underperforming assets were impaired to the value of R365m. Impairments are when a company’s assets decline in value permanently from when they were first bought.
In Curro’s case, some of its schools were underperforming and did not bring in the revenue projected when they were built. However, Loubser said this did not mean those schools would be closed.
“It does not mean that schools have failures. It does not mean that we're going to stop providing exceptional education. In fact, we're just going to go stronger, but it does mean that it might take longer for them to fill up and or they may never quite fill up to the level that we anticipated when we built them.”
During the period under review, Curro invested R669m into expanding its footprint, opening two new campuses in Namibia and one in Sandton, Johannesburg, bringing the total number of schools to 189.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.