Digital storage and sustainability at school
Let's talk about school documents and their digital storage. Paper consumption per student at a school is based on: 1 sheet per test, on average 2 sheets per activity and 3 to 5 for papers (from each subject), as well as numerous signed documents that must be stored. In addition, on average 200 sheets per notebook, which are used for various purposes that, of course, most of the time, do not include Conscious discard in the trash.
Sustainable education reflects an essential behavioral profile for future generations. It is necessary to change pre-established customs, conventions, and cultures that permeate society when it comes to responsibility with its own garbage, inside and outside an educational institution.
However, working with environmental awareness is not just limited to reuse; it also concerns, above all, produce less waste. Currently, schools that act in full compliance with regard to “environmental sustainability” use, above all, the Digital Signature.
Think of it this way: if there are 500 students at an institution, imagine the amount of documents per student, which require physical signatures. In São Paulo, one of the most influential schools in the city, Bandeirantes College, set up an event for the institution's enrollment and re-enrollment days. Eram hundreds of parents and students in a closed court, just to sign the mandatory documents and formalize the registration.
Of course, not everyone attended, taking into account the difficulty in synchronizing dates and times on a single day, for different shifts, grades, and years at a school. As a result, the process could take up to days, causing significant management delays and congesting school administration.
One of the solutions that fit like a glove was the Digital Signature. Now it is no longer necessary to waste an entire day and still extend the collection of subscriptions indefinitely. By signing electronically, it is possible to register, renew enrollments, negotiate monthly fees, hire employees and suppliers in less than 1 minute. No long deadlines, piles of documents, or stressful queues.
In this article, we will talk about the environmental impact that technology promotes, the influence of “being sustainable” for students, and the solutions that the most modern schools in the market use in their administrative operations. Come with us!
The future must be sustainable
In addition to schools, companies and the third sector need to change a very embedded culture: the need to keep everything physically. Currently, we can already see the emergence of digital entrance exams, without the need to print thousands of tests, with dozens of pages.
In addition, the most modern schools in the world already use other means of communicating with parents and students. If you're in the education sector, you've most likely heard of the Digital Agenda, a resource commonly offered by School Management Software. These Softwares are powerful administrators customized to exclusively serve each institution, from small to large.
It is through this tool that educational institutions become at least 80% digital. In a management software, important announcements, enrollment and re-enrollment, posting of grades, student attendance, and academic calendar can have their own area for consultation and close monitoring of those responsible for enrollment. This replaces old materials and situations that we know, such as:
Agenda and Information Wall
The Digital Agenda is already an exceptional and assertive trend in direct communication between school management, teachers, students and parents. In the past, to obtain information about enrollment, beginning of classes, academic year, meetings and events, a conventional agenda was used - or it was necessary to attend the institution in person. In a Digital Agenda, parents and students have a macro view of the school schedule, all in the palm of their hand on an internet device.
Bulletin
Now, definitely, the bulletin cannot be hidden from parents! In a Software, the student area contains attendance, test scores, bimonthly averages, and total number of absences.
Physical contracts
Registrations and renewals made from a cell phone, from anywhere in the world and at any time: all through an institution's own website or application, with legal validity in accordance with current legislation on Digital and Electronic Signatures - Law 14,063. Less waiting time, more organization and assertiveness in the pedagogical and administrative routine.
Congested administration
Digital storage also replaces piles of documents that hamper administrative routine and internal processes. It is very laborious and currently unnecessary to carry out an exhaustive management, separating each document by cycle, class, series and shift. This procedure is much simpler and easier (as well as more secure), maintained under a digital regime. If you haven't heard of these two management models yet, understand more deeply about the physical documentation costs compared to digital documentation! After all, we can tell you which one is more worthwhile for your pocket.
And at the end of the day, what is the true impact of a sustainable school?
It is necessary to think that educational institutions are trainers, agents of primary socializations and identity constructs. For many years, elementary and secondary education institutions were losing to time, as their target audience - the famous Generation Z - began to live in an accelerated learning ecosystem; it is a reality in which children and young people are bombarded with new information at all times.
Electronic devices are everyday tools throughout society, and resisting this new perspective is synonymous with stagnation. For this reason, taking the school to this digital universe in all its processes has become important as a form not only of differentiation, but of survival and costs. In addition, there is the impact on the environment.
Why does a sustainable school make a difference in the social environment?
Imagine a country with continental dimensions, with 214 million Brazilians, inside and outside of school. A4 paper is currently made from 0.013% of the trunk of an eucalyptus tree; an entire tree would make, on average, 7,550 sheets of paper, according to the magazine O Papel. The annual per capita consumption of paper, on the other hand, amounts to 50 kilos, the same as 10,600 A4 sheets. Account result: a single person uses approximately one and a half trees per year. However, we are talking about 214 million inhabitants. Is it not enough?
Currently, educational institutions lead the paper waste index. The answer is obvious: the impact of sustainable schools reflects much more effectively than any type of incentive campaign: the very identity formation of a society whose mentality naturally adopts environmentally healthy behavior.
The culture of sustainability will change the world
It is necessary for children to develop a critical and empathetic awareness of the environment from their earliest years. Taking ownership of the Digital Age, future society has the real potential to change all the conventions that exist today. They may seem like small actions when we talk about:”Switch to digitalthe”,”Restrict paper consumptionthe”,”promotion of recycling practices”. But imagine at least 50% of institutions with this behavior! Look at the weight:
According to research conducted by Jornada Edu, a school with 500 Students would spend 250 thousand leaves during the year; equivalent to 33 felled trees. What if that school had more than a thousand students? The numbers speak for themselves.
Sustainability is one of Clicksign's missions, and we want it to become yours too.
Here on our blog, you can discover even more about sustainability and digital storage in schools and universities, digitization of processes, and innovative solutions for the educational universe. We hope to see you more often here. Until next time!
