Homework is no longer a paper-pencil affair with many city schools going paperless in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint. Notebooks and pencils have been replaced by cloud storage and web portals.
For almost four years now, students of RN Podar School, Santacruz, have been doing their homeworks and assignments on google drive.
Not only assignments, all documentation is online today. Parents do not receive notices in hard copies anymore.
“When assignments and homeworks are made online, they are prone to plagiarism. Teachers have to be on guard and design the assignments such that the students don’t share their work or copy from the internet. Teachers’ task has increased,” said Nikita Bajaj, headmistress of the school.
However, Bajaj said the school’s practice to reduce wastage imbibes similar values in students at an early age.
Along similar lines, Ryan International Group of Institutions has developed a dedicated portal for students. A username and password is issued to students as well as parents, who can log on to the portal to access any study material or communication.
Kalpana Dwivedi, principal of St Joseph’s Panvel that has been using the portal for around three years, said: “We rarely use paper anymore as everything is online. Students finish their homework online. Parents receive notices and communications online. All administrative documentation is also done online.”
The efforts by the schools are aimed at reducing their carbon footprint — an indicator of pollution caused by an individual or organisation.
Wilson College in Churchgate not only reduces its paper wastage by going online, the college has also tied up with an NGO to recycle paper.
“We collect all our paper and send it for recycling. We get 40 per cent of what we send back,” said Shehernaz Nalwalla, coordinator of the internal quality assurance cell of the college.
In another attempt, Ruparel College in Matunga recently called for an energy audit, the results of which are awaited.
“The results will help us understand how to reduce our power consumption,” said principal Tushar Desai.
Source: The Indian Express