Why should you switch to a school management system when your current system is excellent and everything is running smoothly? Then why even think about replacing an existing system? This is an excellent point, but it’s probably not the right topic to be asking. True, your school functions flawlessly. But how much does it truly cost you, and are there ways you could be doing things better, sometimes even a lot better?
More than 300 million tonnes of paper are produced worldwide each year, and more than 60% of the wood harvested annually is utilised to make paper and related products. However, there are numerous environmental advantages to becoming paperless.
Going paperless by implementing school management software has numerous advantages for schools, students, teachers, parents, and managers in addition to these.
Why is there a need to go paperless?
Having the capacity to preserve crucial papers is one of a business’s most crucial components. Physical theft and damage from fire, water, and other potential natural disasters are the two main threats that paper faces from the outside world. Important documents may potentially be viewed by unauthorised employees. A password-protected system ensures confidential documents remain confidential.
Last but not least, going paperless makes your school more environmentally friendly. Document digitization reduces the number of copies made, the amount of paper used, and the cost of documents. Additionally, you can recycle any document that you can currently discard, including brand-new copies. Giving back to the environment lessens your carbon footprint and benefits the entire world.
Space for paper, filing, and other resources
The costs of paper, printing, and photocopying add up not to mention the amount of manual work needed to keep records accurate and up-to-date. Although it is difficult to locate official data on paper consumption in schools, anyone in charge of budgeting in schools will be able to agree to the high expense of paper, printing, and photocopying. While a student information system won’t completely eliminate costs in this area, it will undoubtedly make a large hole in them. Perhaps, even enough to pay for the use of a school management system.
On the administrative side, there is an equally thick stream of paper that has to be managed and made available, including contracts, documentation of continuing education obligations, payroll and payables, requests. The online system of school management will decrease the use of paper in administrative tasks too. It helps the staff to manage daily that required physical record books easily with a digital system.
Is the data you store really secure?
Since we rely on paper, we don’t store data. Regardless of whether the data is digital or written on paper, you are responsible for keeping it secure and current.
How do you keep it all current and where is it kept? Throughout your school, in filing cabinets? Word and Excel documents? In each individual’s email accounts? You see what I mean. Keeping everything up to date is achievable but exceedingly time intensive and very error prone given the dispersed nature of your students’,
Staff members at the school may also keep private legal and medical information on their laptops, much of it unaccounted for. Since it is practically impossible to keep track of this data, it is also difficult to determine whether it is safe and secure. An integrated school management system handles all of this at once. It keeps all the information secure at one place and it’s accessible to people who are authorized for it.
Make effective communication
While using email and other methods to reach out to the school community is effective, how much time does it take to organise and create a mailing list each time an announcement needs to be made? The truth is that a smart school management system enables you to swiftly and easily send any number of messages and in-app notifications to classes, parents, instructors, or ad-hoc lists of information on published grades, behaviour reports, school announcements, etc.
Online admissions replaces the tedious filing and administrative work with a seamless approach. With a few clicks, attendance may be taken and recorded. Parent/teacher conferences can be scheduled automatically, which makes the procedure straightforward. Automatically generated grade reports are available for email. The list of enhancements, cost savings, and productivity increases is endless.
The next consideration is where you will put the savings you stand to gain from implementing a school management system. A pleasant problem to have, for sure! Want to learn about SmartStudent App? Get in touch today!