Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry(APAAR ID)

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Awareness in IT

Context: Recently, several state governments requested schools to seek parental consent for the creation of a new student identity card.

What is APAAR ID:

APAAR, which stands for Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry.
It is envisioned as a special ID system for all students in India, starting from childhood.
Under the initiative, each student would get a lifelong APAAR ID, making it easy for the learners, schools, and governments to track academic progress from pre-primary education to higher education.
APAAR would also serve as a gateway to Digilocker

What is the goal behind the APAAR ID for students:

The goal behind introducing APAAR is to make education hassle-free and reduce the need for students to carry physical documents.
This initiative was launched as part of the National Education Policy 2020 by the Education Ministry.
APAAR also aims to reduce fraud and duplicate educational certificates by providing a single, trusted reference for educational institutions.
Only first party sources that issue certificates will be allowed to deposit credits into the system, ensuring authenticity.

How will the APAAR ID work:

Every individual will have a unique APAAR ID, which will be linked to the Academic Bank Credit (ABC) which is a digital storehouse that contains information of the credits earned by students throughout their learning journey.
With the APAAR ID, students would be able to store all their certificates and credits, whether they come from formal education or informal learning.
When a student completes a course or achieves something, it is digitally certified and securely stored in his/her account by authorised institutions.
If the student changes schools, whether within the state or to another state, all related data in the ABC gets transferred to the new school just by sharing the APAAR ID.

What do students have to do to get their single ID created:

To sign up for APAAR, students will have to provide basic information such as name, age, date of birth, gender, and a photograph.
This information will be verified using their Aadhar number.
Students will need to sign a consent form, and they can choose to either accept or decline sharing their Aadhar number and demographic information with the Ministry of Education for creating the APAAR ID.
For minors, parents will have to sign the consent form, allowing the Ministry to use the student’s Aadhar number for authentication with UIDAI.
Registration for creating APAAR ID is voluntary, not mandatory.