Transformation from Paper to Paperless Society 

Technology nowadays has become a huge part of our lives, especially in the academic sector. Since the 90s, when schools had basic desktop computers, now Schools have laptops and VR in the classroom as a norm, we can say that in a very brief time the progress we can see is staggering. This evolution in technology over the past few years has had a tremendous effect both on teachers and students. The classroom, as it was, is already changing and it is being shaped by the progression of technology. This evolution, of course, has influenced all aspects of the school experiences.

To me, to have paperless learning sounds stupendous and quite stupefying. If anyone does not agree with me to the idea of “paperless education”, how ridiculous it is. If we are not adept to embrace this novel idea, it simply means we are living in a fool’s paradise. Thanks to the pandemic which compelled us to meditate over having paper-free education, virtual classrooms, and students being virtually taught at all levels.

I acknowledge there are some problems that students at a lower level might come across if they are given tabs, mobile phones and laptops without supervision, they may misuse these gadgets. On the contrary, I can say with firm conviction if there is a problem, there’s always a solution. Children must be kept under the strict supervision of their parents, gradually they’ll be mature enough to use e-devices for their own wellbeing.

As it is known, if there will be less paper then ultimately there will be more trees, which directly benefits the environment, but in addition to this, there are many more advantages of a paperless system. There’s no denying that going paperless helps to save the environment and reduce waste.

In Australia, over 4 million tonnes of paper are used every year. On average, that’s 230kg of paper per person, and of this 4 million, nearly half isn’t recycled.

However, the impact of Australia’s paper use goes beyond just trees. It takes 24 trees and 90,000 litres of water to produce one tonne of printer paper, as well as large amounts of electricity and oil. Paper that isn’t recycled also contributes to landfills, and pollutants in the air.

By going paperless in the classroom, you’re directly contributing to reducing waste, water, and power use – and providing a cleaner and more sustainable world for children in the future. Moreover, modelling the right behaviour to pupils will teach them to be more eco-friendly, which directly goes in the favour of our environment.

It isn’t only a matter of paper being wasted, but it’s too a matter of money being wasted. Recent research has shown that schools use an average of 1,000 sheets of paper per pupil each year. Some schools spend as much as £65,000 on printing costs alone. That’s a lot of paper, staples, ink, photocopiers and laminators. Just imagine the amount spent on these accessories spent the other way on the salaries of teachers. That would be pleasing. Or the other way round, this amount could be spent on setting up the entire e-learning world with modern tools and methods instead of using a big amount on papers reams which just go wasted and unused as a major risk to pollute the environment.

In the global race of competition, the need for paperless learning is emerging. Meanwhile, the monster of COVID-19 accelerated the importance of a paperless society. Covid 19 times were the real moments when the world became aware that without paperless education, there wasn’t any way to keep education in a continued state. If science had not progressed enough; then today in this age of pandemic, there would have been a serious and noticeable lamentable educational crisis which by no means could be controlled if there wasn’t such thing as paperless education.

And for some countries who couldn’t manage to continue paperlessly, they should contemplate that if they won’t do so for a long time, they will be their reason for their nation to dawdle and to lag in the world.

Major aspects of paperless education go massively in the favour of not only the student community but the teaching community as well who has been rightly favoured by this factor.

As you may see, for the above-mentioned education type, teachers can teach from their homes which no doubt most teachers would love. Even for teaching in schools, e-learning has several benefits for teachers’ communities. Teachers could set up their classrooms to enable more collaborative work. Teaching assistants could be given suitable spaces to work with pupils on a one-to-one basis whilst staying in the classroom. Teachers will be more efficient and collaborative in their planning, and SLT(Senior Leadership Team) would have a clear overview of what’s being taught. School leaders would no longer waste time collecting sets of books for marking reviews. No more danger of the work of students being misplaced.

For parents, this is an acceptable matter because their children would be studying in front of their eyes. One of the most important considerations by which this type of education can be favoured is that students can’t bunk classes. Which almost always happens while being personally present in schools.

When we talk about paperless learning, it’s not just the educational sector that should be home to this new concept. I must mention here, that not only at the school level but in colleges, universities, offices, banks as well as in markets, new technological mechanisms should be introduced which focus more on paper free businesses rather those with actual papers and pens. For the reasons that we cannot cease the world from progressing further as is happening now. But at least we can keep up with the progressing world and stay in touch with the new technological tools and methods as we should to stay successful individually as well as a nation.

Let me conclude that futuristically speaking, the success of every nation lies in paperless schools, colleges, universities so much so in all fields of life. We need a paperless society and for that, we’ll need to adopt paperless mechanisms in various capacities of life.