Some school owners, especially small educational institutes believe that using school management software to automate school operations in their school isn’t required. It is believed that since they do not have a large number of students in the school,most operations can be carried out manually
Here are some myths that prevent small institutes from improving their overall operations with the help of school software.
Paper-based records are enough:
This is a common myth that record-keeping on the paper-based system will be enough to operate the small institutes. This may stand true for the first couple of years. As soon as the institute operates in full scale, you will start noticing that the faculty are spending more time on paper-based administration and record-keeping activities than actually teaching or coaching the students. Another advantage is that with the school software, all the data across multiple years will be available in digital format to access in the future. Other than saving time and physical space, this will also help in smart decision making by the institute owner
School software is costly
Not all high-quality school software is costly. There will be different layers of pricing to choose from the provider. Since the small institute does not require advanced features, you can start with a starter pack which will contain fewer features for a reduced price. After using it for a while, you can upgrade to an advanced package once the software starts producing ROI. There are also free and open source school software available which you can download and start using for free but will require a technical expert to install and set up the software for your institution.
Small institutions can use only spreadsheet software to digitize their day-to-day operations.
Nowadays, almost everyone is trained in basic spreadsheet operations and this makes departments and owners try using spreadsheets software to digitize their operations.
Some organizations use popular spreadsheet softwares like Microsoft Excel while others use database management softwares to improve their technological outlook.
However, you should note that going through this rigorous process wastes time and cost.
When your academic institution grows and requires more advanced management operations, using a spreadsheet software alone will not suffice. It would instead make work more cumbersome and draggy. For instance, a fee collection or a time table management cannot use spreadsheets alone
Experts required to manage school software.
It’s easy to wrongly believe that you need to recruit a specialized faculty/body to manage the school software due to the tons of functionalities involved. That’s far from the truth. A good school software should be user friendly, such that staff in school can be trained to use it effectively.
If you have a small institute, your staff can be trained to use the software while also performing their daily tasks. When your institute grows in leap and bounds, you can recruit an expert to handle the more complex task