APAAR stands for the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry, also known as ‘One Nation, One Student ID.’
Educators have voiced their apprehensions about the Union government’s APAAR ID system, pointing out that having to collect data for the scheme was another item in an increasing list of non-academic tasks.
The Union education ministry sent a letter to all chief secretaries on October 11 regarding the creation of unique ID numbers for students across the country, the Indian Express reported.
Known as the ‘Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry’ (APAAR), the voluntary unique ID programme is in line with the National Education Policy 2020 and exists in addition to a given student’s Aadhaar number.
A student’s APAAR ID will track their achievements and progress, and allow them to retrieve their academic record for entrance exams, admissions, scholarship disbursement or employment, the Free Press Journal reported.
It will also help government agencies monitor dropouts.
But a student’s Aadhaar data will serve as the basis for their APAAR ID.
The Times of India reported that the creation of a student’s APAAR ID will require their parents’ consent.
CLICK HERE Maharashtra’s government has asked all schools to take consent from parents for the creation of students’ APAAR IDs, the Express’s report said. Schools have also been asked to hold special parent-teacher association meetings between Wednesday (October 16) and Friday to raise awareness about APAAR IDs among parents, the Hindustan Times reported. Following this, they will be required to mark each student as “consented” or “not consented” in a Union government education database, HT’s report added. A brief by the Union education ministry said that as of July this year – two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the APAAR programme – 1.24 crore APAAR IDs had been created across the country. Now, educators have voiced their apprehensions about the APAAR ID system, pointing out that having to collect data for students’ APAAR IDs was another item in an increasing list of non-academic tasks. “Schools just completed work of students’ Aadhaar card update on UDISE [Unified District Information System for Education]. Now, a new ID card is in the making. We also have to update each student’s height, weight and blood-group on UDISE. This leaves us no time to focus on academics,” Pandurang Kengar, a member of a school principals’ association from Mumbai, told the Indian Express. Jalindar Sarode, representative of Shikshak Bharti, told the Hindustan Times that teachers will turn into data entry operators if the government imposes new work every day. “Details of every student is available on UDISE. Then why is new data required? This only poses additional burden on teachers,” the newspaper quoted Sarode as saying. The Free Press Journal cited educators as saying that while the APAAR programme is voluntary, schools will be forced to ensure the participation of all stakeholders, much like Aadhaar verifications. Having an Aadhaar number has become increasingly necessary to access common services in India. Experts have also criticised the Union government’s policy of making Aadhaar virtually compulsory for accessing some government schemes. “We have seen in scheme after scheme that ‘voluntary’ Aadhaar-linking ended up reducing the number of beneficiaries as the government claimed that those who didn’t link it were either ‘ghosts’, when in fact they were very much alive,” economist Reetika Khera told The Wire. FPJ also quoted Kishore Darak, a Maharashtra-based educator, as saying that APAAR’s linkage with Aadhaar makes it vulnerable to misuse by third parties. “Looking at the overall notion and laws of confidentiality in the country, it’s unlikely that the data will remain safe. Linking APAAR with Aadhaar will have a direct effect of the latter being made mandatory. It will violate the Supreme Court’s verdict on Aadhaar and the Right to Education Act, which stipulates that no child can be denied schooling and other entitlements,” Darak said. In Past Five Year, 47 Incidents of Data Leak and 142 Data Breaches: MeitY 16 MAR, 2023: As many as 47 incidents of data leak and 142 incidents of data breach have been reported during the last five calendar years, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) submitted in the Lok Sabha. The information was provided by Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar in response to a question from Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who had asked about the cases of reported leaks and breaches of user data during the past five years. Bordoloi had also asked for the details of data hacked from the RailYatri app, which is authorised by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), and of the government websites from which data had got leaked. The minister replied that “with the expansion of the Internet, more and more Indians coming online and increase in the volume of data generated, stored and processed, instances of data breaches have also grown.” He said as per information reported to and tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), there were 47 incidents of data leak and 142 data breaches over the past five years. As for the hacking of the RailYatri app, he stated that “as per information provided by IRCTC upon receipt of information from CERT-In in December 2022 regarding leakage of data, acquired and maintained by RailYatri app, the ticket-booking facility on RailYatri app was stopped, penalty was imposed on the company which is the custodian of the RailYatri app, and the app was restored after taking necessary security measures.” Furthermore, the minister said, “as per the information reported to and tracked by CERT-In, a total of 10, 5 and 7 incidents of data leak related to government organisations were reported for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.” On observing data leak incidents, he submitted, CERT-In notifies the affected organisations along with remedial actions to be taken and coordinates incident response measures with affected organisations, service providers, respective sector regulators and law enforcement agencies. The minister also spelt out how the government has acted on various fronts to “enhance the cybersecurity posture and thereby secure data against leak and breach, Government has acted on several fronts.” In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister also submitted that there were 10 data leaks related to government organisations in 2020, five in 2021 and seven in 2022. Note: Let’s leave it up to the readers as to how safe the data will be? Additional Information: As mentioned earlier, the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) ID is a unique identity number for all school students of India. This unique identity number will not replace the Aadhaar ID that every student has but will be an addition to it. This identity number will be for all students, from pre-primary to higher education. An APAAR ID will be a lifelong ID number and will track students’ academic journey and achievements. The government has asked the schools to speak to the parents of the students regarding this new identity number for the latter and take their consent for the same. The unique identity number will be made under the new ‘One Nation, One Student’ Scheme launched by the Union Government. According to TG Sitharaman, AICTE Chairman, “APAAR and National Credit Framework will be the QR Code for learners across India. Every skill they pick up will be credited here.” Source: The Wire, India Also Read:
What Is APAAR ID?
Govt Asks Schools To Take Parents’ Consent