1. Acceptance of Terms
By downloading, installing, or using the Royal Mercy Institute (RMI) application, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use the app. These terms apply to all users including students, educators, tutors, and visitors.
2. Description of Service
RMI provides an educational platform offering STEM courses, AI-assisted tutoring, human tutor bookings, community engagement, and learning progress tracking. Some features are available free of charge; others require a paid subscription. RMI reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any feature at any time.
3. Account Registration
You must provide accurate and complete information when creating an account. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. You must not share your account with others. RMI reserves the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms.
Users under the age of 13 must have verifiable parental or guardian consent before registering.
4. Subscriptions and Payments
RMI does not offer any free courses or a free tier. New users may access a 2-day trial with limited features before choosing a paid subscription plan. RMI offers the following subscription plans:
- 2-Day Trial: 5 AI Tutor interactions, basic progress tracking, and access to 4 free Astronomy courses for 48 hours from sign-up. No community access. No paid course content.
- Student Premium - R49/month: 30 AI Tutor interactions per month, grade-specific courses unlocked, all Astronomy courses, community access, leaderboard and streaks, basic progress tracking, and tutor booking access. No certificates, no offline caching.
- Power Learner - R70/month: 50 AI Tutor interactions per month, everything in Student Premium, Exam Prep courses (all levels), Robotics courses, verified certificates, offline content caching, and tutor booking access.
- Pro Learner - R99/month: 70 AI Tutor interactions per month, everything in Power Learner, priority tutor booking, and Tech Talk live sessions.
- Family Plan - R120/month: All Pro Learner features for 2 individual learner accounts, plus R50 a month for each extra learner, up to 5 learners. One parent account pays. Adding a learner seat charges R50 straight away for the current month, and the higher monthly price starts on the next billing date. Removing a seat lowers the price from the next billing date, with no refund for the current month. Each learner selects their own grade and tracks progress independently under a shared subscription. Once a grade is selected, it cannot be changed while the subscription is active; grade changes may only be made after the current subscription expires, before the next payment.
All prices are in South African Rand (ZAR) and include VAT where applicable. Payments are processed securely via PayFast or Ozow. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled.
Plans are billed monthly. There is no yearly plan and no admin, sign-up or annual fee.
Cancelling: you can cancel any time from your dashboard. Your access continues to the end of the month you have paid for, and then the plan ends. There are no refunds for part of a month.
First payment refund: if you ask within 7 days of your first payment on a plan, we refund that payment in full. Ask from your dashboard (Manage subscription) or by email.
Failed renewal: if a monthly payment fails, you keep access for 3 days while we remind you to pay. After that the plan is paused. Your progress, certificates and history are kept, and paying again restores access.
Tutor sessions
Tutor sessions are paid for separately from your plan. RMI sets the price for each level, per learner, per hour, and the price is shown before you pay. A booking is a request until your tutor accepts it. These rules apply to every session booked on the website:
- Sessions can be booked at least 2 hours ahead and up to 30 days ahead.
- Your tutor has 12 hours to accept, or until the session starts if that is sooner. If they do not, the booking is cancelled and you get a full refund.
- If you cancel 12 hours or more before the start, you get a full refund. If you cancel less than 12 hours before, you get 50 percent back. If you do not join the session, there is no refund.
- If your tutor cancels a confirmed session or does not show up, you get a full refund plus R50 credit.
- You can move a booking once for free, 12 hours or more before the start.
- Refunds and credits go to your RMI wallet straight away. Within 7 days of a refund for a session you paid by card or EFT, you can ask for that amount to go back to your card or bank instead; we pay it within 5 business days.
- You can join a session 10 minutes before it starts, and a session can run up to 10 minutes over.
5. Course Retakes
Students may retake a completed course subject to the following conditions: a minimum waiting period of 25 days from the date of completion must have elapsed, and a new retake payment of R70 per course is required. Progress is reset upon a successful retake payment. Retakes may be repeated an unlimited number of times provided these conditions are met each time.
6. Intellectual Property
All course content, lesson materials, quizzes, certificates, the RMI name, logo, and branding are the intellectual property of Royal Mercy Institute and its licensors. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from any RMI content without prior written permission.
YouTube video content displayed within lessons is subject to YouTube's Terms of Service and the respective content creators' rights.
7. User-Generated Content
By posting in the community chat, submitting tutor reviews, or sharing success stories, you grant RMI a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display that content within the app. You are solely responsible for the content you post. RMI reserves the right to remove any content at its discretion without notice.
8. Prohibited Conduct
You agree not to:
- Use the app for any unlawful purpose
- Harass, bully, or threaten other users
- Post offensive, discriminatory, or sexually explicit content
- Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the platform
- Use automated tools to scrape or extract content
- Misrepresent your identity or impersonate others
- Share your account credentials with others
- Attempt to reverse-engineer or decompile the app
Violation of these rules may result in immediate account termination without refund.
9. Certificates
Certificates of completion issued by RMI are for personal development and portfolio purposes. They are not accredited by SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) or any other official body unless explicitly stated. RMI makes no guarantees regarding the recognition of its certificates by employers, universities, or government institutions.
10. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, RMI shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of the app. RMI does not guarantee that the app will be error-free, uninterrupted, or free from viruses.
Total liability shall not exceed the amount you paid to RMI in the 3 months preceding the claim.
11. Privacy
Your use of the app is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using RMI, you consent to the collection and use of your data as described in the Privacy Policy.
12. Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa, including the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (No. 25 of 2002) and the Consumer Protection Act (No. 68 of 2008). Any disputes shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.
13. Changes to These Terms
RMI reserves the right to update these Terms at any time. Continued use of the app after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. We will notify users of material changes via in-app notice or email.
14. Contact
Royal Mercy Institute
Founder: Mohau Mokoena
Phone: 070 518 5296
General: info@royalmercyinstitute.co.za
Technical Support: support@royalmercyinstitute.co.za
Website: royalmercyinstitute.co.za
South Africa