BELA by province
Home education registration in North West
Applications for home education in this province go to the Head of Department of the North West Department of Education, whose head office is in Mahikeng.
- Department North West Department of Education
- Seat Mahikeng
- Deemed approval 60 days
- Rule set bela v1
Where to apply
Setswana is the Home Language of most families in North West. There is no Selemo city guide for the province yet; the Pretoria guide describes the bushveld year that much of the province shares.
Before you apply, read the department's own requirements on its website or ask its office, and ask whether it wants the application at the head office or at your district office.
The steps
- Read what the North West Department of Education asks for, on its website or by asking its office.
- Complete the Education Plan for this phase and download it.
- Gather the documents in the list below.
- Fill in and sign the North West Department of Education's application form for home education.
- Submit the application to the North West Department of Education and keep proof of the date it was received.
- Record the date you applied in Selemo, so Selemo can count the days with you.
- If you have heard nothing after a month, write to the North West Department of Education to ask about progress and keep a copy.
The documents
A copy of the child's birth certificate, a copy of each parent's or guardian's identity document, proof of address, the Education Plan for this phase, a weekly timetable and the child's most recent school report, if they were at school.
The 60-day clock
If the North West Department of Education has not answered a complete application within 60 days, Selemo's reading of the rules is that it may be treated as approved, so keep proof of the date you applied. For example, an application received on Monday 12 October 2026 reaches its 60th day on Friday 11 December 2026.
Planning the school day in North West
North West is mostly flat bushveld and grassland with summer rain, hot summers and cold, dry winters.
Mahikeng lies close to the Botswana border, and the west of the province grows drier towards the Kalahari, where shade and water matter on every outing.
Families in the east of the province, near Rustenburg and the Magaliesberg, share the Pretoria guide's bushveld year of October storms, winter aloes and thorn trees flowering before the rain, while families in the dry west should plan for more heat and less rain.
The Pilanesberg, the ring of hills left by an ancient volcano, and the Madikwe Game Reserve near the border make good winter outings, when the bush is open and the days are mild.
Around Mahikeng, Selemo's season engine finds savanna with summer rainfall. On the shortest day the sun rises at 07:03 and sets at 17:34; on the longest it rises at 05:23 and sets at 19:08.
That is 10 hours 31 minutes of daylight in June against 13 hours 46 minutes in December, and at the spring equinox the sun rises at 06:06 and sets at 18:13: a main lesson that starts an hour or two after sunrise works in every season, and the Education Plan's section on the week and the day records when it begins.
Home Language and First Additional Language
The languages most spoken at home in North West include Setswana, Afrikaans and Sesotho. The Education Plan names your child's Home Language and First Additional Language, and the CAPS comparison follows that choice.
Assessment at the end of the phase
A competent assessor looks at your child's progress at the end of each phase: the Foundation Phase towards the end of Grade 3 and the Intermediate Phase towards the end of Grade 6. Arrange the assessor early in the final year, and share the assessor pack before the meeting.
- Contents
- The learner
- Outcome coverage
- Comparison with CAPS
- Selected main lesson book pages
- Termly reports
- Milestone checklists
- Evidence chain verification
Sources and status
- The department, steps, documents, deemed-approval period and assessment points come from Selemo's compliance rule set bela v1, in effect from 1 January 2026 and awaiting legal review; the BELA Act and the South African Schools Act govern home education, and the North West Department of Education's own requirements come first.
- The home languages are the most widely spoken in North West in Statistics South Africa's census, and sunrise and sunset are computed by Selemo's season engine for Mahikeng, rounded to about 5 km, for the solstices of 2027.
Registering in North West, without the worry
Selemo builds the Education Plan from your record, counts the days after you apply and gathers the assessor pack when Grade 3 ends.
No card needed for the trial. Seedling Free stays free.