Curro Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Curro Holdings is South Africa's largest independent (private) school network, offering K-12 education from early childhood/nursery level (Curro Castles) through primary and secondary school, under brands including Curro Schools, Curro Academy, Curro Select, Meridian, DigiEd, assisted-learning schools and Curro Online. It was founded in 1998 by Chris van der Merwe together with Thys Franken, Eddie Conradie Snr. and Eduard Ungerer, opening its first campus in Durbanville in 1999. As of 2025 the group operated 189 schools across 81 campuses in South Africa and Namibia, with more than 73,000 learners enrolled. Curro listed on the JSE's AltX in 2011 and later on the JSE main board (ticker COH). In 2013 Curro acquired the Embury Institute and built a tertiary division, but this higher-education arm (Stadio) was unbundled and separately listed on the JSE in 2017 – since then Curro Holdings itself has had no tertiary/higher-education or TVET division. In a landmark philanthropic transaction, the Jannie Mouton Foundation acquired Curro for roughly R7.2 billion, and Curro delisted from the JSE on 13 January 2026, converting into a public benefit organisation with no shareholders, reinvesting all surpluses into the schools. Curro Holdings is therefore purely a K-12 private schooling group, not a traditional tertiary/higher-education institution, and no verifiable post-school programmes could be confirmed on its official site.

Qualifications & Programmes