Riaan Jacobs was born on April 20, 1951, at Fauresmith in the Orange Free State, South Africa, where he grew up in a typical Afrikaans-speaking family that attended the Dutch Refor...view moreRiaan Jacobs was born on April 20, 1951, at Fauresmith in the Orange Free State, South Africa, where he grew up in a typical Afrikaans-speaking family that attended the Dutch Reformed Church.
After he matriculated in 1968, his mother remarried and they moved to Pretoria. From April 1969, Riaan received training at the Army Gymnasium in Heidelberg and served as an instructor at Danie Theron Military School near Kimberly until his recruitment ended in 1970.
From 1971, he studied at Normaal College of Education in Pretoria, where he received the Transvaal Higher Education Diploma (Industrial Arts) in 1974. As a teacher at two secondary schools (Staatspresident C. R. Swart and Menlopark) from 1975 until 1990, he studied part-time at the University of Pretoria and at the University of South Africa.
After Riaan received his Med. (Psychology) in 1990, he became a psychologist at the Department of Education in Pretoria. He continued his studies and received his PhD on March 29, 1996.
During his years as a psychologist, he mentored three post-graduate students and assisted them to get their dissertations ready for submission. He continued to work as a psychologist at the Gauteng Department of Education until he retired on April 30, 2016.view less