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Good Life

Pay school fees or raise funds for education with Standard Bank UCount Rewards and School-Days

Members can choose to support up to two schools of their choice, Adopt-a-School Foundation, or their own families

Standard Bank customers can use or donate their UCount Rewards Points to a beneficiary of their choice via the School-Days app or website.
Standard Bank customers can use or donate their UCount Rewards Points to a beneficiary of their choice via the School-Days app or website.
Image: Supplied/Standard Bank

Standard Bank UCount Rewards members can now earn rewards points and donate them to the school of their choice or pay their family’s school fees, in partnership with School-Days.

UCount Rewards, through the generosity of its customers, hopes to provide much-needed financial relief to schools in the country. Customers can use the UCount Rewards Points they earn whenever they spend using their qualifying Standard Bank personal credit, cheque or debit cards towards paying school fees, donating to their schools, or supporting an underprivileged school that could really do with the help. 

Collecting school fees has been a great challenge for schools — both public and private. Some parents are simply battling to make the payments and schools and teachers are under pressure as a result.

While there may be signs of recovery from the economic outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic, the reality is that many families continue to feel the financial pinch. 

“The cost of living is rising, but household incomes are staying the same, or increasing marginally, making it difficult for consumers to cover the costs of expenses such as debt repayments, transport and education fees,” says Fayelizabeth Foster, head of loyalty & rewards at Standard Bank.

“We understand that every rand and cent counts. We want to make it as easy for our customers to save where they can so they can get their families through school and help relieve the financial burden on the education system,” says Foster.

Standard Bank customers can use or donate their UCount Rewards Points to a beneficiary of their choice via the School-Days app or website, and by joining School-Days as a member and spending at School-Days Earn Partners, they add School-Days Edu-Time Points (ETPs) to their School-Days account. (1 ETP = R1) 

School-Days CEO Paul Esterhuizen says: “We began School-Days as a fundraising programme focused on providing individuals with the opportunity to earn ETPs to help pay for their family’s school, college and university fees. We adapted the platform to help schools harness the collective power of their communities.”

School-Days members can now choose to support up to two schools of their choice, Adopt-a-School Foundation, and/or their own families. 

Using either UCount rewards points or ETPs, members can:

  1. Support up to two registered SA schools of their choice by selecting them as beneficiaries.
  2. Support disadvantaged schools by donating their points to the Adopt-a-School Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports the creation and enhancement of a conducive learning and teaching environment in disadvantaged schools. 
  3. Pay towards their family’s school, college or university fees. They can also boost their account with their own direct contributions. An education fund Top Up makes a great gift from family and friends on special occasions such as birthdays and graduation ceremonies.  

“Standard Bank’s partnership with the School-Days programme forms part of our efforts to help relieve households by providing them with a mechanism to contribute towards fees and help schools that may still be enduring hardships as a result of the pandemic. If every member donates even a small amount, it can make a huge difference towards reducing youth unemployment, and to helping communities and the wider country to recover from recent events,” says Foster. 

Download the School-Days app or visit schooldays.co.za to see how to redeem Standard Bank UCount rewards points to pay your family member’s school fees, support up to two schools, or donate to the Adopt-a-School Foundation.

This article was paid for by Standard Bank.