Mismatch in Data of AP Delaying One Student-One Nation Concept

Kakinada: Mismatch in student data is delaying information related to Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) in Andhra Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has introduced APAAR as part of its one student-one nation concept to digitally Identify students across the country. The data is being gathered from students of Class 1 to X and Intermediate.

As part of the concept, students will have an ID card, which will reflect her / his entire academic profile, including their date of birth certificate and Aadhaar number. Data of students thus has to be collected with utmost care, without any mistakes like in date of birth and Aadhaar number as otherwise, this will adversely affect the student's career.

All government and private schools have to register this data and send it to the education department. According to officials, data of 54,23,592 of 80,38,812 total students (67.47 per cent) has been registered in AP. However, Nellore, Sri Satya Sai and Anantapur districts are lagging behind in generating the APAAR Data.

AP United Teachers Federation (UTF) state president N. Venkateswarlu has pointed out that while registering APAAR data, the school record, UDISE (Unified District Information System for Education, Aadhaar card, date of birth certificate and related documents should match. In case there is any mismatch, APAAR does not take the data.

Venkateswarlu said school records and UDISE can be verified at the school-level, but Aadhaar cannot. Kakinada district UTF general secretary Chakravarthi said teachers of schools are coming under pressure, as many of them do not have knowledge about computers. He suggested that the state government can deploy a computer technician for the purpose.

West Godavari district education officer (DEO) S. Narayana told Deccan Chronicle that in case there is a mismatch in Aadhaar card, it takes 15 to 21 days for parents to update their Aadhaar card.

East Godavari district collector Shanmohan Sagili said the state government has prepared an Integrated Skill Development Plan for students and APAAR is very important for it. He instructed officials to complete the data by November 16. He warned private educational institutes that their recognition will otherwise be cancelled. He pointed out that there are 3,42,298 students in the district of which data has been generated for only 2,17,535 students.

School headmasters point out that many students are not having Aadhaar numbers so far. Unless parents submit the birth certificates of their children, Aadhaar centres are not updating or generating the Aadhaar number. They feel delays because of these glitches should be taken into consideration by the state government.