Rural students to have APAAR IDs soon for credit storage, college admissions

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Education recently launched the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) through the Common Service Centres (CSCs) in remote villages across the country. The scheme aims for ‘One Nation, One Student ID’ and mandates all college students to register on the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). Under the new education policy, it is mandatory for students to have an ABC ID to take admission to any college or university.

Launching the scheme, the school department secretary Sanjay Kumar emphasized on providing a provisional APAAR ID to school students immediately which should be linked to their Aadhaar and Digilocker in order to make school and higher education more transparent and easy.

The Academic Bank of Credits has been established on the lines of the National Academic Depository (NAD). While ABC enables students to register or transfer credits, the final outcomes of credit redemption and issuance of certificates as well as the compilation of award records are managed by the academic institutions.

Also read Over 3 crore students have so far registered for Academic Bank of Credits: UGC

Adding to the benefits of APAAR, Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), said that students will not be required to provide certificates and could just give their APAAR ID in future. The ID will remain with the students for their entire life, he added.

CSC CEO informed that the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) will go to schools, enrol students, and provide them with the APAAR IDs. While this will help keeping records of students in one place, it will also stop irregular activities as well as aid schools lacking infrastructure for online services, he said.

Academic Bank of Credit

ABC is a digital repository or digital storage wherein students can store their marks, certificates, credits, and personal information. Students will have to visit the nearest CSC to avail the service. The ABC ID is a unique 12-digit code to store, manage, and access the academic credits, including degrees, diplomas, certificates, training details, and co-curricular accomplishments digitally.

With the help of an ABC ID, students will be able to take admission from one institute to another for graduation and post-graduation easily. The ABC ID will enable the colleges and universities to access all the data of students with just one click.