The Gujarat government has instructed all schools across the state to achieve 100 per cent registration under the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) by January 31. APAAR is a key component of the Union government’s ‘One Nation, One Student ID’ initiative, aimed at creating a unified digital academic identity for every student in India.
Gujarat has nearly 53,500 schools – private and government primary and secondary schools – with an estimated enrolment of 1.15 crore students. The State Project Director (SPD), Samagra Shiksha, in its directive issued on January 15, asked all district education officers (DEOs) to monitor the registration on a daily basis, especially in the districts which have low registration count.
“More than 70 per cent APAAR registration has been completed and the remaining is expected to be achieved soon,” Ranjeeth Kumar J, State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha, told The Indian Express. However, sources said that over 225 schools across the state> have not even started the process.
Among the schools which have not opened the APAAR registration, the highest are in Ahmedabad city (AMC) followed by Surat city (SMC), Chhota Udepur, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Morbi.
The matter was discussed at length during the fifth chief secretaries’ conference held in Delhi and those districts that have not even started the process till date were sought for an explanation.
“It is directed to conduct daily monitoring and review of how many APAAR IDs are generated and necessary action to be taken,” the directive, issued by the Gujarat government, states.
Regular video conference meetings with district education officers for APAAR ID, that is aimed at strengthening ‘Ease of schooling’ and serving as a lifelong academic passport, consolidating all achievements and credentials of a student in one place, has also been conducted over the last few weeks.
“The APAAR IDs are expected to help in skill gap analysis and provide industry relevant content for upskilling programmes, by monitoring students’ academic records. While APAAR will facilitate tracking of each student's enrollment, attendance, grade progression in compliance with the Right to Education Act, it will also help in tracking ‘Out of School Children’ (OoSC), ‘gifted children’, children from marginalised communities and their engagement with educational institutions. It is also expected to help in identifying ‘at-risk’ students, which will in turn ensure timely intervention to prevent dropping out of the school system,” an education official stated.
Once all IDs are created, the data collected through APAAR will be shared with the Vidya Samiksha Kendra (VSK), said a District Education Officer (DEO). This will aid in decision making for educational policies and resource allocation. The VSK will help in analysing the trends, assess educational outcomes and identify areas customised to the region.
Though it was launched on February 13,2024 by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, it was in September 2024 that the APAAR ID generation campaign was started at the school level. In Gujarat, the communication and awareness campaign for parents was started last year.
12-digit number for every student
APAAR is a specialised identification system designed for all students across schools. This initiative is part of the 'One Nation, One Student ID' programme launched by the Union government, aligning with the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Credit and Qualifications Framework (NCrF). In Gujarat, it is launched at the school level. APAAR assigns a unique and permanent 12-digit ID to every student, offering a comprehensive record of their academic as well as co-curricular achievements. This ID functions as a permanent digital identity for the student in the education ecosystem.
