On college mornings throughout Kenyan cities, transport handovers occur quick and totally on belief, but when one thing goes fallacious, colleges usually lack verifiable information of who arrived, when, and thru which entry level, a spot that creates threat for pupils, mother and father, and directors and turns routine logistics right into a safeguarding and accountability downside.
Many college transport routines nonetheless depend on paper registers, cellphone calls between drivers and academics, and scattered textual content messages, whilst the brand new Site visitors (Faculty Transport) Guidelines, 2025, and Nationwide Transport and Security Authority (NTSA) notices require correct information and reporting.
In the meantime, GPS‑based mostly college‑bus apps and communication platforms elevate questions beneath the Information Safety Act 2019 about youngsters’s location information and consent. For most colleges, the sensible want just isn’t a full‑day hint of a kid’s actions however a dependable, auditable file of key handover moments the place authorized responsibility of care modifications.
TerraGO, a Kenyan college operations startup, constructed its system round logging these predefined handover actions somewhat than repeatedly following youngsters. The platform focuses on creating time- and place-based information tied to particular school-defined touchpoints somewhat than producing a stream of location information.
Every logged motion solutions a slender query: did a registered band or tag work together with an accepted reader at a recognized location inside an anticipated time window? This provides colleges a approach to affirm {that a} pupil handed by means of a set checkpoint with out constructing a full motion historical past.
The {hardware} within the youngster’s bag or on their wrist
Kids carry a wearable within the type of a wristband or bag tag that makes use of close to subject communication (NFC), whereas colleges set up readers at bus doorways, gates, and key entrances. As soon as college students arrive at school, a faucet on certainly one of these readers creates a file linked to that machine, that location, and that second.
In response to co-founder Collins Muriuki, colleges resolve the place these readers sit, whether or not on the bus step, the principle gate, or reception, and the system treats every faucet as a discrete entry within the college’s transport and arrival log.
“NFC faucet confirmations at school-defined touchpoints,” Muriuki stated.
How a college morning performs out
A typical bus journey begins with a toddler tapping the reader as they board, which logs the boarding occasion. Through the journey, the college can activate a brief hyperlink that exhibits the bus path to each the college and the guardian. The journey additionally features a map tied to the automobile somewhat than a person youngster, which expires when the journey ends.
On arrival, the kid faucets once more when getting off the bus and as soon as extra on the gate or entrance, and every of those actions can set off a notification if the college and guardian have chosen to obtain them, whereas youngsters who stroll or arrive by automobile faucet on the entrance to create a single arrival file.
The system stays targeted on these faucets, so if a registered band interacts with a recognized reader within the anticipated time band, the platform can report that the pupil was current at that time, with out counting on a cellphone within the youngster’s pocket or a series of GPS alerts.
What mother and father see and what they don’t
Mother and father can view confirmations for arrival and pickup occasions, and switch notifications on or off.
Dwell map visibility seems solely throughout an lively bus journey and ends when the route ends, with no replay of previous journeys and no scrollable route historical past contained in the app.
Outdoors these time-bound journeys, the guardian view centres on occasion information somewhat than maps, which retains the give attention to handovers somewhat than steady monitoring.
Pickup with out biometrics
At pickup, mother and father generate a brief time period code and title the grownup allowed to gather the kid, then share that code with the guardian, and on the gate a workers member checks the string and sees both a match with the kid’s particulars and anticipated grownup or a warning if the code has expired, is offered by an unlisted particular person, or seems at an uncommon time.
Codes reset day by day and can’t be reused, and the system avoids facial recognition or fingerprint scans, relying as an alternative on these time-limited digital passes.
How colleges use the dashboard
Inside the college, directors see a morning view that compares anticipated and confirmed arrivals by route and sophistication, serving to them spot pupils who boarded a bus however haven’t but checked in on the gate, those that are late, and flagged exceptions.
Employees open particular person information when the dashboard alerts a difficulty, and alerts exit solely when set situations match, akin to the best band, reader, and time window, whereas unclear or partial information doesn’t set off a message.
Information scope and management
The system’s information rely upon bodily faucets at registered readers, not on steady location feeds. Colleges management their operational information, whereas mother and father see solely information tied to their very own youngster. Entry to previous information is time-limited and linked to particular makes use of, akin to critiques.
The corporate says it doesn’t promote youngster information, Muriuki insisted, and that entry to reside and historic information inside its methods is logged and restricted by function.
“Even internally, Terra workers can not casually discover a toddler’s historic information. Entry is tightly managed and logged,” Muriuki stated.
The method of onboarding a college
Bringing a college onto the platform begins by mapping its courses, routes, gates, and insurance policies, then importing pupil, guardian, and transport particulars into that construction. After that, workers run check situations akin to mock bus runs and trial pickups earlier than any reside use.
Rollout then takes place in phases, by route, grade, or entry level, which permits workers to regulate processes in smaller teams somewhat than altering the whole lot directly.
How a lot does the product price?
The product has a wearable and a subscription. Every youngster makes use of a Terra GO band, an IP68-rated wrist machine, which the corporate claims can final for one yr with out recharging. The band prices KES 2,500 ($19).
Mother and father pay KES 500 ($4) month-to-month for the software program, which covers alerts, reside bus journey location, protected zone notifications, pickup codes, a shared guardian circle, and 30 days of logs. The annual plan prices KES 5,000 ($40).
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