Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) ID for school students

Context

Parents and activists fear that opting out of the Education Ministry’s APAAR ID for school students could become nearly impossible, despite enrolment being officially voluntary.

About APAAR ID

• Initiative By: Ministry of Education.
• Introduced Under: National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
• Key Features:
  • Lifelong Academic Identity: Each student gets a unique 12-digit ID.
  • Centralized System: Manages academic records in one place.
  • Credit Transfer: Facilitates the transfer of credits between institutions
  • Lifelong Identity: Stays with the student throughout their educational and professional career
  • Additionally, it has features to; Preserving student achievements, Streamlines credit recognition, Enhance educational flexibility & Credit transfer across institutions.
• Registration Process:
  • Parental Consent: Due to the sensitive nature of personal data involved, parental consent is required for students below 18 years of age.
    • Parents can obtain and submit the consent form through their child’s school or the official APAAR website.
  • Student Registration: Students need to register on the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) portal by creating an account on DigiLocker, providing their Aadhaar number and other necessary details.
  • APAAR ID Generation: Upon successful registration and verification, the system generates the unique 12-digit APAAR ID, which is then linked to the student’s DigiLocker account for secure access.

Concerns Over APAAR ID Implementation

• Voluntary vs. Implied Mandate: While the Ministry of Education states that APAAR ID enrolment is voluntary, a January circular from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) instructed schools to ensure “100% saturation” of APAAR IDs for all students.
  • This directive has been interpreted by many schools as a mandate, raising concerns about whether opting out is truly possible.
• Data Privacy and Security Issues: The APAAR ID system links to Aadhaar and stores sensitive personal and academic data.
  • Advocacy groups like the Internet Freedom Foundation have warned about the lack of robust data protection measures for minors’ information.
  • There is currently no legal framework mandating APAAR IDs, which raises questions about data security and consent.
• Challenges in Aadhaar Linking: Some parents have faced issues linking their child’s Aadhaar to APAAR due to spelling mismatches between school records and the UIDAI database.
  • CBSE has advised schools to direct such parents to Common Service Centres for document correction, adding to the enrolment burden.

Way Forward

• Ensure Clear Voluntary Consent: The Education Ministry should issue a formal directive clarifying that APAAR ID enrolment is voluntary and prohibit schools from enforcing it as mandatory.
• Strengthen Data Privacy Protections: Introduce a legal framework to safeguard students’ sensitive data, ensuring transparency, consent, and accountability in data collection and usage.
• Simplify Aadhaar Linking Process: Provide support for resolving Aadhaar mismatches directly at schools or through online platforms to reduce the burden on parents.

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