From the former Anglican church in Khayamandi to the former Louiesenhof Cellar and now a state-of-the-art new school, Apex Stellenbosch have firmly put roots down in Stellenbosch.
The Apex Education Group celebrated a milestone last week with the official opening of its local campus along the R304. The private school has a blending learning model with 100 learners per class, working independently online with the help of an in-person teacher and teaching assistant.
“Visitors always ask ‘100?’ and I have to explain ‘Yes, 100 learners per class. Would you like to visit a classroom?’” said principal Robyn van de Rhede.
Although private, Apex schools are registered with the provincial education department and follow the CAPS curriculum.
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According to Ernst Gouws, chairperson of Apex Education, the group’s mission is to make quality education possible for all learners. “With Apex’s unique and innovative learning model, where we take the best elements of technology, together with still giving our learners in-person access to excellent teachers, we have been able to bring quality education at an affordable price to the communities who need it most, and to put the schools right in the middle of those communities,” Gouws explained.
At full capacity, Apex Stellenbosch can accommodate 1 000 high-school learners and 700 in its primary school. Currently the school offers Grade 4 and 5, while the high school has Grade 8, 9 and 10 learners. The first matriculants will graduate in 2028.
Although the first Apex school in Eerste River was established in collaboration with public schools, Gouws said the real potential of Apex was in creating independent schools.
Funding from the Millennium Trust and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation meant Apex could branch out from Eerste River to Stellenbosch. A school in Pinelands is on the books for this year.
During the campus opening, Apex Education CEO Jana du Plooy announced plans to incorporate a primary school model into Apex schools, the expansion of the Pinelands school and Apex’s 10-year growth strategy. Vision 10/10/10 is a plan to build 10 new schools, over the next 10 years which will accommodate 10 000 learners annually.
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“When Apex started, all we really had was belief – the belief that children, irrespective of their socio-economic status, deserve access to a life-long education; the belief that excellence and sustainability can co-exist; and the firm belief that our children are proud of the achievements that they can achieve. Our belief continues to be reinforced by the scholars themselves,” Du Plooy related.
And the model seems to be working. Apex Eerste River achieved a 98% matric pass rate in 2025 and 73% of those matriculants have the opportunity to study further at a tertiary institution.
Locally, learners are doing more than keeping up with their peers. During the department’s systemic test, Apex Stellenbosch’s learners surpassed the provincial average, as well as other local quintile 5 schools in both mathematics and language provincial education minister David Maynier confirmed.
Du Plooy said these results were not lucky or a once-off effort, but it was achieved through discipline. “Now we know we can delivery education at a meaningfully lower cost point than what we believed possible until now and this model has the potential to significantly increase the quality of education for thousands,” she added.
Maynier welcomed Vision 10/10/10, reaffirming the department’s commitment to work with Apex Education to get more learners in schools.
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