RESOURCES
Academic calendar 2025/2026
When schools open, when they close, when the mid-term breaks fall, when examinations are written and when the holidays run. The calendar applies to every public school and every approved private school in Kano State.
One calendar for the whole State
The 2025/2026 session runs from 15 September 2025 to 24 July 2026 in three terms of thirteen or fourteen weeks. It binds every public school under SUBEB, KSSMB, STSB, KSQISMB and the Agency for Mass Education, and every approved private, community and mission school under the Private and Voluntary Institute. A school may not open early, close early or extend a term without the written approval of the Permanent Secretary.
The calendar is drawn up by the Directorate of Planning, Research and Statistics in consultation with the boards, taking account of the national examination windows fixed by WAEC and NECO, the Islamic calendar, the federal public holidays and the harvest and rainy seasons in the rural local government areas. It is approved by the Honourable Commissioner for Education and circularised to every board, every Zonal Education Office and every Local Government Education Authority before the end of the preceding session.
The dates below are the approved dates. Where an event has to move — a national holiday declared at short notice, an examination body changing a window — the change is issued as a circular under the calendar and reaches schools through the Education Secretary. A parent who hears a resumption date from a neighbour rather than from the school should check it against this page.
The three terms
Approved dates for the 2025/2026 session, as circularised to all boards and schools.
| Term | Opens | Closes | Length | Mid-term break | Examinations | Holiday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Term | 15 September 2025 | 19 December 2025 | 14 weeks | 3 – 7 November 2025 | 8 – 18 December 2025 | 22 December 2025 – 2 January 2026 |
| Second Term | 5 January 2026 | 2 April 2026 | 13 weeks | 16 – 20 February 2026 | 23 March – 2 April 2026 | 6 – 17 April 2026 |
| Third Term | 20 April 2026 | 24 July 2026 | 14 weeks | 8 – 12 June 2026 | 13 – 24 July 2026 | 27 July – 11 September 2026 |
What happens in each term
First Term — 2025/2026
Second Term — 2025/2026
Third Term — 2025/2026
The session, event by event
-
27 February 2026
First Term resumption — all schools
Term · All boards · completed
-
2 April 2026
Annual School Census enumeration opens
Census · Ministry — Planning, Research & Statistics · completed
-
14 May 2026
Capitation grant, first tranche, released to schools
Finance · SUBEB · completed
-
15 June 2026
First Term examinations
Examination · All boards · completed
-
8 July 2026
Second Term resumption
Term · All boards · completed
-
27 July 2026
Private school approval renewals fall due
Licensing · PVIB · completed
-
25 August 2026
BECE and Qualifying Examination registration closes
Examination · Ministry — Examinations Unit · scheduled
-
3 September 2026
Common Entrance Examination
Examination · Ministry — Examinations Unit · scheduled
-
16 September 2026
Examination centre accreditation visits begin
Inspection · Ministry — Quality Assurance · scheduled
-
1 October 2026
Second Term examinations
Examination · All boards · scheduled
-
19 October 2026
Third Term resumption
Term · All boards · scheduled
-
4 November 2026
WASSCE written papers begin
Examination · WAEC / KSSMB · scheduled
-
22 November 2026
Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate
Examination · KSQISMB · scheduled
-
14 December 2026
Basic Education Certificate Examination
Examination · Ministry — Examinations Unit · scheduled
-
7 January 2027
Qualifying Examination and SS 1 placement
Examination · KSSMB · scheduled
-
29 January 2027
Third Term examinations and promotion decisions
Examination · All boards · scheduled
-
10 February 2027
End of the 2025/2026 session
Term · All boards · scheduled
Ramadan timings and public holidays
The school day is shortened during Ramadan. Timings are fixed by circular from the Permanent Secretary before schools resume for second term, because the month moves against the Gregorian calendar each year; the circular sets the opening time, the closing time and the adjustment to the period length, and it applies to public and approved private schools alike.
Schools also close for the federal and State public holidays — Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Maulud, Christmas, Easter, New Year, Workers Day, Democracy Day and Independence Day. Where a holiday is declared at short notice, the Ministry issues a circular the same day and schools resume on the next working day unless told otherwise.
A school that loses more than three teaching days to unscheduled closure in a term must make them up before the terminal examinations, and the head teacher reports the arrangement to the Education Secretary.
Fixed points every session
These recur in the same week of the same term, year after year.
- Free uniform and exercise-book distribution — first fortnight of first term
- Annual School Census enumeration — week six of first term
- Capitation grant first tranche released to schools — week nine of first term
- Private school approval renewals fall due — second term
- Common Entrance Examination — third week of March
- Qur'anic and Islamic Studies Certificate — second week of May
- WASSCE written papers — April to June
- Basic Education Certificate Examination — second week of June
- Qualifying Examination and SS 1 placement — first week of July
- Promotion decisions and the session results return — final fortnight of third term
How the calendar reaches a school
The approved calendar is issued as a numbered circular on Ministry letterhead, signed by the Permanent Secretary, and copied to the eight boards, the six Zonal Education Offices and the forty-four Local Government Education Authorities. Each Education Secretary is responsible for putting a copy in the hands of every head teacher and proprietor in the local government area, and for confirming in writing that this has been done.
Every school must display the calendar on the notice board where parents can see it, and must read the resumption and closing dates out at the last assembly of each term. Schools with a functioning SBMC also table it at the committee meeting, which is where most parents in the rural local government areas hear it first.
The calendar is published here on the same day the circular is signed, and the dated event list above is generated from the same source as the school portal, so a head teacher checking a date online and a parent checking it here see the same thing.
Planning around the calendar
Examination timetables, centre lists and entry deadlines are published separately and are updated as each series is confirmed.