It is not often that you see a government move generating rather positive feedback in the initial stage. Yet the introduction of the initiative called ‘One nation, one student ID’ by the Department of School Education and Literacy, about last week, has managed to get the much needed support from the teachers community. “The move empowers educational institutions to operate more efficiently and provide a higher quality of education. With the use of this special ID, students will be able to keep all their academic information in Digilocker, the government’s digital wallet, along with information on their extracurricular and athletic achievements, which they can later use to apply for jobs and higher education. This system enhances security, ensuring that every student is easily identifiable,” Maithili Tambe, CEO, The Academy School, told FE Education.

The initiative introduced under National Education Policy 2020, is targeted towards both government and private school students to better the education management besides tracking students’ performance throughout the years. As per government officials, to create APAAR ID, students will have to fill in the basic information about their age, date of birth, gender and a photograph. This information will be verified using their Aadhar number. Students will be required to complete a consent form either agreeing or declining to share details of their Aadhar number and demographic details with the Ministry of Education for the purpose of establishing the identification card. In case of minors, parental consent has been made necessary for authentication through UIDAI. It’s important to note that registration for the creation of an APAAR ID is a voluntary choice and not an obligatory requirement.

As per several media reports, several state governments have asked the schools to seek parents consent for the creation of the new student identity card. Under this initiative, each student would get a lifelong APAAR ID. The union government claims that the new special student ID will help in students transfer, tracking their academic progress from pre-primary to higher education. It also claims to help state governments in analysing the literacy rates and drop out rates to take necessary steps for the improvement. According to Shalini Nambiar, director principal, Seth Anandram Jaipuria School, Vasundhara, this will facilitate better collation and accessibility of data for informed decision-making, improved learner assessment and identification of areas of improvement. “However, allocation of APAAR IDs will be a herculean exercise demanding concerted efforts by governments, schools, students and parents. There are also concerns regarding data security,” she explained.

For experts these cards are a blend of innovative ideation and technological advancement including cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). “Not only will we do away with paper usage and integrate sustainability, we are also going to add greater authenticity to marksheets and certificates because grades will only be uploaded by registered school administrators,” Monisha Sharma, director, The Lexicon Group, explained.

However, experts are quick to point out that collecting data and consent from students and parents can be a tedious task, and increase the work-load. “Teachers and schools may be burdened a bit at the start with the task of getting parental consent and collating data, but given the long-term benefits of creating unique identity for each student, I think it’s a challenge worth taking on,” Nambiar added.

Published on:- October 27, 2023
Published By:- Financial Express
Link:- https://www.financialexpress.com/jobs-career/education-one-nationone-student-id-how-it-is-supposed-bring-in-educational-efficiencynbsp-3287660/