Course guides › Grade 8 › Economic and Management Sciences
Grade 8 Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) takes the three CAPS strands further: the economy, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
This guide explains the three strands with examples.
Course status: coming soon. We are still building the Grade 8 Economic and Management Sciences (CAPS) course, so it can’t be bought yet. This guide explains what the CAPS curriculum covers this year, so you can use it now. The planned price is R300 per subject per year.
What’s covered: the three CAPS strands
The DBE’s Annual Teaching Plan sets the detailed topics and their order term by term, and your child’s school follows it. This guide gives the broad picture of each part of the subject.
The economy
How people, businesses and government make, buy and sell goods and services.
Financial literacy
Managing money and keeping financial records, building up to the basics of accounting.
Entrepreneurship
What entrepreneurs do, and how a business idea is planned and run.
Key ideas, with worked examples
Source documents
Every transaction starts with a source document that proves it happened.
Worked example. Cash received from a customer → a receipt, recorded in the Cash Receipts Journal (CRJ).
The accounting equation
Assets = Owner’s equity + Liabilities.
Worked example. A business with R50 000 of assets and a R20 000 loan has owner’s equity of R30 000.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
- Recording a transaction in the wrong journal (CRJ vs CPJ).
- Not balancing the accounting equation.
- Mixing up a sole trader and a partnership.
Tips for parents
- Agree a routine, then step back. Senior Phase learners like to work on their own; check in on the week’s work rather than every page.
- Look at real receipts and invoices together.
- Talk about the national budget when it is in the news in February.
Frequently asked questions
How much will the Grade 8 Economic and Management Sciences course cost?
R300 per subject per year once it opens. Like our live courses, it will be one course for the whole year with Terms 1 to 4 inside it, so there’s nothing extra to pay per term.
When will the course be ready?
We’re building it now. The Grade 8 Economic and Management Sciences card on our home page shows “Coming soon” until the course is ready, and then it changes to “Open course”.
Will it work on a phone, and will it use a lot of data?
Yes, it will work on a phone. Like our live Maths courses, it will open in a phone’s web browser or in the free Coursebox app for Android and iPhone. Lessons are pictures and short text with quizzes and no videos, so it uses little data.
Is the course in English or Afrikaans?
The Grade 8 course will be in English.
Get ready for Grade 8 Economic and Management Sciences
The Grade 8 Economic and Management Sciences (CAPS) course is coming soon at R300 per subject per year. Bookmark this guide and use the overview above to follow what your child is doing at school. See which Grade 8 subjects are open on the course cards.
Back to the Grade 8 course cards · All Grade 8 guides
Sources and review
This guide follows the broad structure of the DBE’s CAPS Economic and Management Sciences curriculum for the Senior Phase (Grades 7–9). Detailed topics and their order are set by the DBE’s Annual Teaching Plan, which your child’s school follows. Last reviewed: 31 October 2026. AI Buddies is an independent project and is not endorsed by the Department of Basic Education.