SA startup launches new feature to screen students for Covid-19

Karri, a South African school payment’s startup has expanded its offering as it launches a new feature on its mobile app to screen students for Covid-19 symptoms before arriving at school. 

The startup’s online platform has created a Covid-19 screening questionnaire for students which instantly shares the results with their schools via the Karri dashboard. 

Karri unveils new feature that helps schools test students for Covid-19

Founded in April 2017, Karri is an online payment platform that aims to simplify payments at schools, eliminating the need for cash payments. It is aimed at parents, teachers, and schools to make payments for civvies days, school outings, and fundraising events more convenient. 

The Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the dynamics of in-person teaching, with mandatory requirements for students to undergo a Covid-19 screening every morning before entering school grounds. 

Covid-19 screening 

Karri has launched a solution to ensure that students are efficiently tested and that these records are securely placed via an easy-to-use platform. Schools must be able to effectively manage and document these results. 

In an interview with Ventureburn, Emma Cox, Marketing Manager for Karri provides insight into how the new feature works.

“Hundreds of schools, currently using Karri as a powerful payment and communication platform to their parent base, now had the ability to send out Covid-19 screening questionnaires, allowing the parent to simply fill in the questions and inform the school if the child would be attending that day or not. The school could personalise these questions, allowing them to make sure they covered all areas they saw necessary. This feature remains totally free to use and the aim is simple: Helping to keep our schools a safe and COVID-19 compliant place.” 

A wide variety of schools make use of this new feature, as its accurate online system stores all results in one place daily, avoiding any form of physical paper trails that supports the startup’s mission. 

A safer environment in schools

Parents have the ability to securely send money to their child’s school at the click of a button with Karri’s online platform. The online platform also features a built-in reminder, calendar, and transaction history function to provide parents with all the resources they need to keep up-to-date with school-related events and payments.

Cox reiterates the mission of the app with reference to the accurate data collected from the new feature.

“The aim of Karri has always remained congruous: To make our schools a safer place, allowing more room for positive impact in the classroom and beyond. We remain true to our mission, by offering a simple, sleek, totally quick, and easy to use feature to facilitate the correct documentation of Covid-19 screening questionnaires.”

The Karri team continues to push for a digital revolution within the education space with the objective to remove hundreds and thousands of unwanted cash off school grounds.

The future of Karri

Karri will partner with Bidvest Waltons for a Back To School Stationery drive which will ensure parents have the ability to purchase Walton’s Stationery Packs securely through the app, eliminating physical interaction and preventing the spread of Covid-19.

Read more: School payments app Karri expands offering to organisations needing to collect funds

Featured image: Doug Hoernle, Karri founder (Supplied)