Digital Transformation for a Clean Sustainability Footprint in Basic Education

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-930-8_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Digitisation; Sustainability Footprint; Basic Education; Environmental Impact

Abstract

The pursuit of a clean sustainability footprint within the basic education sector is an emerging priority in the context of global environmental and economic challenges. In many schools, current record-keeping, assessment, and communication systems rely heavily on manual processes, including handwritten student records, paper-based assessments, and printed letters for communication. Even where digital tools such as spreadsheets exist, their adoption is limited to basic functions, with significant underutilisation of advanced features. This paper investigates how digitisation can reduce resource wastage, streamline administrative processes, and promote sustainable operational practices in basic education. Using a qualitative case analysis of a representative basic school, the study identifies operational inefficiencies, including unnecessary expenses on underused software, redundant manual messaging, and costly third-party report generation. The findings highlight the environmental and financial implications of continued reliance on paper-based systems, as well as the transformative potential of adopting integrated digital solutions. Recommendations include the implementation of scalable educational technology platforms, staff capacity-building in digital literacy, and the development of policy frameworks to support sustainable digital transformation. The study contributes to the literature on sustainable education management by demonstrating that digitisation not only reduces the carbon and material footprint but also enhances efficiency and cost-effectiveness in resource-limited educational contexts.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Richard Fosu
AU  - Elikem Chosniel Ocloo
AU  - Ernest Winful
AU  - Frank Opuni Frimpong
AU  - Daniel Odoom
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/26
TI  - Digital Transformation for a Clean Sustainability Footprint in Basic Education
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Business and Entrepreneurship (ICSBE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 118
EP  - 131
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-930-8_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-930-8_10
ID  - Fosu2025
ER  -