Physical ID cards get lost, shared, and forged. NFC (Near Field Communication) learner ID turns identification into a one-second tap at the gate, hostel entrance, or event door — logged instantly against the correct learner profile. MyEncore includes NFC learner ID as a standard feature, not an add-on module.
Book a Demo See PricingMost South African schools still rely on laminated cards, sign-in sheets, or a security guard's memory to confirm who's on campus. That breaks down at scale: cards get swapped between siblings, sign-in sheets are illegible by period 3, and there's no real-time record for a parent asking "did my child arrive at the after-care pickup point?"
NFC closes that gap. Each learner's card or tag holds a unique identifier. A reader at the gate, hostel door, or event entrance reads it in under a second and logs the scan against that learner's MyEncore profile — with a timestamp and location, not a guess.
| Scan point | What it confirms |
|---|---|
| Main gate (morning/afternoon) | Learner arrived on campus / left campus, with an optional parent notification the moment it happens. |
| Hostel entrance | Boarder in/out log for house parents — useful for nightly headcounts and after-hours accountability. |
| Sports fixtures & school events | Fast, verified entry without a printed guest list or a queue at the table. |
| Tuckshop till point | Same card doubles as the cashless tuckshop identifier — no separate card needed (see tuckshop management). |
NFC scans aren't an isolated log file — they flow into the same learner profile used by attendance, communication, and (where relevant) tuckshop billing. A gate scan can trigger the same parent notification pipeline used for GPS-based attendance, so a parent gets one consistent stream of updates about their child's day rather than a separate app for each system.
Schools already running SA-SAMS integration with MyEncore don't need a second identity system — the same learner record that syncs to SA-SAMS is the one the NFC reader checks against.
NFC readers and learner cards/tags are hardware the school sources and owns — MyEncore doesn't lock schools into a proprietary card supplier. The reading, logging, notification, and reporting software is included in the standard MyEncore subscription at no extra software licence cost. Most schools start with the main gate and hostel entrance, then expand to events once staff are comfortable with the workflow.
NFC learner ID is included in every MyEncore subscription: R50 per learner per year for schools under 1000 learners, or a five-year taper starting at R27 in Year 1 for schools with 1000+ learners (see the full pricing breakdown). No setup fees, no per-module surcharge for turning NFC on.
You need an NFC reader at each scan point and NFC-enabled cards or tags for learners. The software side — reading, logging, and parent notifications — is included in the standard subscription with no extra software fee.
The scan is logged against that learner's profile in real time. Depending on configuration, a scan can trigger a parent notification, mark attendance, or log entry/exit at a hostel or event.
It can supplement or replace them depending on the school's process. Many schools keep teacher-taken attendance as the register of record and use NFC scans for gate access, hostel headcounts, and event check-in where speed and verification matter most.
Book a Demo See Full PricingLast updated: 2026-07-02 · MyEncore CC (Reg 1995/005324/23), Pretoria, South Africa. Home · All features · Attendance tracking · Pricing