Panaji: APAAR IDs have been generated for 81.1% of Goa’s school students, covering 2.35 lakh of the state’s 2.89 lakh enrolments. State education officials informed the Union education ministry that generation of the remaining IDs is pending due to Aadhaar mismatches and technical issues.During a recent review of the implementation of central govt education programmes in Goa, Union education ministry officials advised the state to “coordinate with UIDAI and expedite generation of remaining APAAR IDs to achieve saturation”.The APAAR ID system is being rolled out for students in govt, aided and private schools as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP). APAAR, or Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry, is a unique 12-digit identification number assigned to every student and is aimed at creating an academic bank of credits that will digitally store their academic records and progress.The lifelong ID is expected to make it easier to track a student’s educational journey and facilitate the transfer of academic credits when a student changes schools within the state or elsewhere in the country.“APAAR ensures transparency and will help in streamlining academic records. It will help remove any duplicity and minimise fraud. It will also include co-curricular achievements of students. Once APAAR is fully implemented in the state, no additional certificates will be required other than APAAR,” a state official said.The ID will function as a permanent digital identity for students, with all academic credentials stored digitally through DigiLocker, which is linked to the student’s Aadhaar number.“There is no fear of losing hard copies of certificates, and therefore it will be useful for all types of cases such as transfer from one school to another, entrance examinations, admissions, and job applications,” the official said.
