Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — As many as 84,000 private school students are expected to benefit from the Masruf system, launched by Tatweer for Education Technologies Co. (TETCO) this year.

Masruf is an electronic application and platform that connects with the private school students through an electronic bracelet featuring a number of advantages. This bracelet facilitates the process of purchase and payment at school canteen or to serve other school sales, as well as a channel for communication with parents, in addition to controlling students’ school attendance and disbursement of students.

TETCO is the technological arm of the Ministry of Education, offering high quality education and communication digital and technology solutions to the public and private sector.

The Masruf system contains four applications. They are wali al-amr (guardian), maqsaf (canteen), hudhoor (attendance) and hafila (bus).

Through the guardian application, the student’s account will be credited from the guardian’s device, via Visa card or Apple Pay. The application can also set a daily, weekly or monthly limit for spending for each student. It also determines the types of food that cause allergies with regard to each child, and scheduling the child’s meals for the next month according to the diet he follows.

The app enables to receive instant notifications when the child enters and leaves school, as well as the child’s boarding and getting off the bus. Parents are also able to view the latest school developments, approve activities and pay their fees electronically.

The canteen app allows the student to purchase through the bracelet by scanning it on the mobile of the canteen employee. If the student suffers from any allergy, the purchase of the designated food will be rejected. Also, if the student has meals scheduled by his guardian, he will receive them in a special box in the canteen.

The hudhoor app contributes to locating the student by scanning the bracelet upon entry and exit on the sensor located at the gate. In the event that the student leaves early with the approved guardian, the student has to swipe the sensor, and the device then issues a red warning, provided that the guardian swipes his own card on the device to give permission to leave.

In the ‘bus’ application, the supervisor confirms that each student has boarded the bus, and an immediate notification is sent to the guardian that the child has boarded the bus. The app also notifies the guardian at the time the bus is approaching his house, and when the student getting off the bus and reaching home. It also allows knowing whether the student had registered an early exit from school and hence would not ride the bus that day.

TETCO targets 84,000 students to use this year the new e-system, which is an innovative idea that could attract wide and comprehensive interest in the rest of the Kingdom’s regions.

The ‘Masruf’ system will be linked to two accounts on the website, which mainly contribute to linking the school with the student and helping it to synchronize information with the system, namely: the school account and the canteen account. The school account includes the students’ control panel that shows their names, national and school ID numbers, and all their data, in addition to the financial monitoring of each student and the gate number through which he entered, which can be updated and added other students with ease.

The guardian’s communication panel alerts the guardian of the latest developments in the school and sends notifications to him, and adds important links such as the school calendar, booking of appointments, school policy mattes, and communication with the school. The control panel for the bus system shows the student’s information on the bus, his route from school to home, the names of the supervisors, and the time of departure and return.

The school’s account also includes a control panel for approved guardians, through which a specific guardian or several guardians would be approved by the school, allowing them to receive the student and ask permission for receiving student early. The guardians are easily added with giving them a programmed card to use when receiving the student.

The account also adds the ‘accredited parents activity panel”, which displays all the details of the approved parent’s receipt of the student, as well as the billing control panel, which includes all invoices, transfers and payment requests.

It is noteworthy that TETCO is a Saudi limited liability company and is one of the Tatweer holding owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). TETCO aims at enhancing the Saudi education sector utilizing technology and digital transformation to keep pace with the local and international growth.