One nation, one student: Educationists apprehensive of APAAR student ID card scheme

Accordingly, last week, the state school education department issued a letter instructing schools to start taking consent from parents. The letter was attached with a proforma of the consent form. As soon as it reached schools, strong reactions emerged from all stakeholders, with schools complaining of the confusion that it has caused.

A principal of a school from the suburbs said, “We had just completed the work of updating the AADHAAR number of students on the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) database. When there is already a database of students, we do not understand the requirement of a new ID card for students.” According to school-teachers, taking consent is only a first step as it could lead to collection of data through schools.

While schools are apprehensive of the additional non-academic tasks, many have also questioned the absence of an option to deny consent. “There is no option to deny the consent on this form. Additionally, in the last paragraph, the form states that one can withdraw the consent in future. But it comes with a rider that any personal data which is already processed before withdrawal of the consent will remain unaffected,” said a teacher.

“There is a sentence in the consent form that also mentions that the data through this ID will be made available to entities engaged in various educational activities and in the list it mentions educational institutions and recruitment agencies,” pointed out another schoolteacher.

Many schools are also confused on what happens when a parent does not want to give consent. According to schools, there is complete lack of any awareness regarding this new ID and parents are going to be apprehensive of signing on a consent form without fully knowing about the scheme.