Rīgas Karte in cooperation with Mykoob opens a new project in Latvia.
It is now possible to keep tracks about pupil's safety and school attendance with a personalized e-ticket.
The school social network Mykoob in cooperation with Rīgas Karte and the Rīga City Council have developed an electronic identification system for schools. This system will allow entry in educational institutions only with the personalised E-tickets (E-talons) of Rīgas Satiksme. This solution would enhance pupils’ security in schools and improve attendance; the authors of the system plan to develop the E-ticket as payment card that could be used in schools’ dining facilities in future, as noted by the project developers.
The parent survey, which was conducted by the school social network Mykoob, showed that 75% of respondents have evaluated the new system positively and admitted that entry in schools with the E-ticket would improve their children’s security.
Currently, the new identification system works in three schools in Rīga – Rīga Secondary School No. 49, Riga Purvciems Secondary School and Rīga Rīnūži Secondary School. Discussion with the Rīga City Council on centralised implementation of the project in all schools of Rīga is currently open.
The Municipal Police patrols near all schools every day and takes care of public order in the territory of school. Excluding the possibility for unauthorised persons to enter the school premises and recording everyone who has entered or left the school premises using the personalised E-ticket will allow to increase the security control. We will see how the project will work and if it will be appreciated by the society, we will seek ways to implement the system in other schools of Rīga.
According to the project developers, the key advantage of the project is the use of E-ticket, as it is not necessary to invent and make other ID cards but those currently used by children in the public transport can be used.
The project has been working in Rīga Secondary School No. 49 since autumn 2011. The school’s headmaster Juris Liepiņš admits that as a result of the technological developments parents can get involved in the learning process more effectively – not only following the results but also attendance: “We as a school are always open to innovations, and identification of pupils at the entry is the way how the security in schools can be improved to ensure that unauthorised persons would not enter the school premises. Moreover, Mykoob system allows us to summarise statistics; for example, to see which pupils are regularly late for the lessons.”
