The promise of a cashless school environment - reducing the cost of cash handling as well as the risk of theft and robbery - is fast becoming a reality. Dainfern College in Johannesburg, in conjunction with Saamies, a new company that operates in association with catering giant Fedics, has launched a cashless tuckshop.
Saamies delivers a unique one-stop, outsource alternative to the traditional mothers` committee-run school tuckshop, offering learners pre-booked, tasty and healthy meals during school breaks.
JSE-listed Prism Holdings has joined forces with Virtual Market Place (VMP), which operates the popular MySchool supporter community scheme, to implement the technology.
The new project at Dainfern College involved issuing every learner from Grade 1 to Grade 12, with a multi-application smart card incorporating an electronic purse.
The purse is loaded with `virtual cash` at a Prism self-service terminal by means of a bank note acceptor. The terminal is located close to the specially designed Saamies tuckshop. Eventually, parents will be able to transfer funds into the purse electronically from a nominated school or bank account. Learners use their smart cards, which carry their photographs, to pay for their tuckshop purchases as well as anything they require from vending machines. According to Saamies MD and founder Charl Marais, learners have enthusiastically adopted the system.
"The day the system went live, learners loaded some R10 000 onto their smart cards via the self-service terminals. Within a week, Dainfern learners were making over 800 purchases a day from the smart card vending machines, and as many were purchasing hot meals from the tuckshop.
"In addition to the security and cost savings, the use of smart card technology enables Saamies to handle several hundred transactions in a limited time period.
"It has significantly increased efficiency at the tuckshop as we no longer have to worry about giving learners change. When they collect their food, they simply swipe their card and the payment is effected," he explains and adds that apart from being highly secure, the new system cuts the time learners spend standing in a queue.
"The system also means that learners who forget to bring cash to school can still buy lunch or purchase something from the vending machines," he adds. Graham Bath, MD of VMP, adds that theft of cash and robberies within schools, tuckshops and offices is a growing problem in SA.
"By removing cash from the school premises, that risk is eliminated. The system also effectively reduces the costs to the school of handling cash.
"Eventually, schools will be able to use the cards for identification, registration and administration purposes. In addition they`ll pay for photocopied notes, photographs, excursions, the school magazine and the myriad other items for which parents are required to `send cash in a marked envelope` to the school, " he adds.
Geordie Blane, Account Manager - Retail/Petroleum at Prism, says the technology platform for the SmartSchool project is Prism`s closed payment system, Prism Altos.
A low-cost, portable payment scheme, Prism Altos has also been implemented in corporate staff restaurants and universities as well as at conferences and exhibitions.
"Smart cards are secure and easy to use. The Prism Altos solution is ideally suited to high-volume, low-value transaction environments, including those which are not online to a financial institution," he says.
The school smart card can also be linked to the MySchool project. When presenting their smart card at MySchool business partners such as local retailers and fast food outlets, a percentage of each transaction is credited to the learner`s school. At present 55 schools in Johannesburg representing 35 000 learners from 23 000 families, and 300 retailers are members of the MySchool community.
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