As November 30 was declared to be the deadline by which the APAAR forms had to be submitted by students in schools, many parents were flustered as to the necessity of such a requirement in the first place. APAAR is short for Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry; it is a unique lifelong identification number introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Designed to track a student’s academic journey from pre-primary to higher education, it stores records of learning outcomes, extracurricular achievements, and skills.
Unlike Aadhaar, APAAR focuses solely on education, acting as an “edulocker” for academic data. Schools have a limited time to secure parental consent for APAAR enrolment and today being the last date to do so, many parents expressed concern over the need for such a system. As per the government, APAAR aims to address issues like student dropouts and ensure consistency in monitoring educational progress.
Neha Shingale, a resident of Dadar West, whose son attends a Parsi school in the area, questions the concept. “There is no clarity on what it actually is. We have been rushed into filling up the form without being told what the purpose is. The information must be properly safeguarded, otherwise, a data breach would be disastrous." Mihir Sharma, a father of twins, both of who attend a suburban school in Bandra East "strongly suspects” that his childrens' data will be provided to private companies as a bid to increase their customer base.
Principals from various schools have been pushing teachers to secure the form by November 30. However, many parents are refusing to abide, asking for official intimation by government authorities and clarification on how and where the data they provide, will be used.
"Unless we are assured that the data will not be misused, how can we share our very private, personal information about the children and the entire family like this?" asks another parent, Mihir Tambe, 45.
The onus of getting parents to provide consent lies with the school and that makes matters a "bit dicey", says the principal of a well known school in BKC, on the condition of anonymity. "We are questioned as to why we couldn’t obtain consent, why data hasn’t been uploaded and why the lag in carrying out this function. But we have held enough meetings with parents and informed them everything. now the decision lies with parents and not us," she adds.
APAAR registration process
1. Verification: Visit the school to confirm demographic details.
2. Parental Consent: Secure consent for minors.
3. Authentication: Identity is verified through the school.
4. ID Creation: APAAR ID is generated and linked to DigiLocker.
