Welcome to The South African National Geography Olympiad (SANGO)

Our 2025 events are as follows:

• 13 May – SANGO Senior – Grades 10, 11 & 12
• 29 July – SANGO Primary – Grades 6 & 7
• 16 September – SANGO Junior – Grades 8 & 9

To Express Interest in your school's first-time participation in these events, please complete the webform available here:
https://sango.org.za
Teachers with an existing Olympus account can log in here:
https://app.olympus.org.za
Guidelines on how to participate are available here.

Aims:

SANGO aims to: (1) foster a love of and literacy in Geography and interest in the world, (2) support the South African Geography Curriculum and (3) build capacity to send a South African team to the International Geography Olympiad (iGeo).

The professional Society of South African Geographers (SSAG), The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and the International Geography Olympiad (iGEO)

The South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA); the South African National Departments of Basic Education (DBE); South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA); Association of Science Technology Engineering Mathematics and Innovation (ASTEMI).

Entry requirements for SANGO Senior:

High school learners in Grades 10, 11 and 12 are eligible to participate. Learners must have their own individual email addresses to participate. Schools must provide learners adequate internet facilities to access the online Olympiad on the day. The Olympiad can be accessed via cell phones, tablets, laptops, and PC’s.

Entry requirements for SANGO Junior: 
Same as above except learners must be in Grades 8 and 9.

Entry requirements for SANGO Primary:
Same as above but learners must be in Primary School, Grades 6 and 7.

Payments are organised and made through schools. Schools pay a R80 registration fee per Olympiad, and each participating learner pays R60. There are no refunds.

To Express Interest in participating please apply here: https://sango.org.za

Inspires learners by stimulating their interest geography, tests their geographic knowledge in a fun way, learners have the opportunity to receive recognition for their achievements, and it is a learning opportunity as we adhere to the learning from assessment principle.

Round 1: Schools pay for and pre-register learners. This is an online competition, undertaken at schools’ premises (or at home in the case of lockdowns), between 7am and 5pm under exam conditions.  

There are 40 multiple choice questions, each with graphics/data. All learners are awarded an official electronic certificate in the following categories: Participation, Bronze (top 15%), Silver (top 10%), Gold (top 5%), and Platinum (top 1%).

Round 2: Top participants from Round 1 will be invited to submit a school research project, which will then be judged, and a national winner declared. Prizes will be awarded to top learners, as well as special certificates. Note that submissions that are plagiarized will result in disqualification. To cover costs there is a small admin fee associated with Round 2. There is no Round 2 for SANGO Primary or Junior. 

Winners from Round 2 will be invited to represent South Africa at the iGEO.
SANGO is recognised by the International Geography Olympiad as the only national geography competition in South Africa entitled to send a team to the iGeo, see here.  

 

1. Climate & climate change
2. Hazards & hazard management
3. Resources & resource management
4. Environmental geography & sustainable development
5. Landforms, landscapes & land use
6. Agricultural geography & food problems
7. Population & population change
8. Economic geography & globalisation
9. Development geography & spatial inequality
10. Urban geography, urban renewal & urban planning
11. Tourism & tourism management
12. Cultural geography & regional identities

Required skills:

13. Mapping skills
14. Inquiry skills
15. Graphicacy skills (read, analyse and interpret images, photos, statistics, and graphs)

A key regional focus for 2025 is Thailand. 

Visit our other Olympiads:

• Die Afrikaanse Nasionale Kompetisie: Tweede Taal (DANKie²)

• History Olympiad South Africa (HOZA)

Privacy Statement:
Olympus Online Education takes privacy very seriously and will never use any personal information other than for the purposes of administering Olympiads. Our services comply with the South African Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act 4 of 2013. This includes all school, teacher, and learner details needed to administer the Olympiad being stored in an encrypted database. We also do not have access to your passwords. You can reset your password by clicking here. The names and photos of winning learners and schools may be used for marketing purposes. Please feel free to unsubscribe from our services at any time or contact us on [email protected] if you have any queries.

SANGO is run by Olympus Online Education, a South African Not-for-Profit Company (NPC registration number: 2020/886551/08).