All government and private schools in India will soon have their unique identification number. As part of the National Education Policy, NEP 2020, the Union Ministry of Education recently issued a circular to introduce a new identification card for students and teachers, the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR), commonly known as ‘One Nation’, One ID. According to a report, the ministry asked all states in a letter to get the consent of parents of all schools under their respective authority before beginning the APAAR enrollment process.
The APAAR or Education Ecosystem Registry (EduLocker) will be a lifelong ID number for students, allowing them to track their academic progress and achievements in real-time. They can keep their test results, learning outcomes, co-curricular achievements such as ranking in Olympiads or receiving specialized skill training digitally, and much more. Furthermore, students transferring from one school to another will have fewer difficulties gaining admission to a new university in any part of the country.
Speaking about the development, Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Educational Technology Forum (NETF), who worked on the registry system, said:
The introduction of APAAR ID will be a much-needed revolution in the educational sector. This will also reduce forgery of documents and become a lifelong CV for a student.
He added:
This ID will also be valid for teachers, enabling an easy flow of information when their transfers take place, and their qualification in the sector can be mapped all over the country. Many industries are now looking at employee capability beyond their results; authentic certifications such as these will be helpful.
The school will carry out the enrolment procedure with the approval of their parents, who will be entitled to withdraw their consent at any moment. The government assured that the data will be shared only with concerned government agencies as needed. The data collected by the schools on each student will be stored on a centralized District Information for Education portal.
The report also stated that the state school education department has asked educational institutions to organize a meeting of parents and teachers between October 16 and 18 to discuss the importance of creating the APAAR ID. The government further asked teachers to update students’ blood group, height, and weight in UDISE data. The APAAR ID will be based on data acquired on the Aadhaar ID. School administrators said they are battling to update students’ Aadhaar details on the portal.
