Goa: Schools achieve 70% student registration for APAAR IDs

PANAJI: Goa has achieved 70 per cent coverage in registering school students for APAAR IDs, which will map their performance and other details from nursery to Class 12. Under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has made 'APAAR (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) IDs mandatory for students from the upcoming academic year.

The APAAR ID links the academic bank of credits (ABC) of a student, storing all academic learnings, certificates, credentials, and formal or informal credits earned from different sources to the granular level of credits, including skilling credits or sports or social work, digitally verified by the agency awarding those credits. Talking to PTI videos, Goa Director of Education Shailesh Zingade said an APAAR ID number is allotted to all students from nursery onwards.

"There are 2,91,931 students from nursery to Class 12 in Goa. While the Union government has not made the APAAR card mandatory, we have made it compulsory from the upcoming academic year for students to have midday meals and other facilities," he said. Zingade said parents and teachers were briefed about the benefits of APAAR before implementing the move.

He said, "I would like to give you a simple example. If a student needs an educational certificate and has misplaced the hard copy, he will have access to the DigiLocker, from where he can retrieve any of his certificates at any time." The official further said the state government will switch to the credit system under the New Education Policy (NEP) for the academic bank of credits. The academic bank of credits is a virtual/digital storehouse with information about credits earned by individual students throughout their learning journey.

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116 schools completed APAAR registration

Zingade said 116 schools in Goa have completed 100 per cent APAAR registration so far. "I wish to thank the heads of educational institutions for their support in increasing the APAAR registry. For some time, we faced several issues, and our percentage was around 30 per cent," he said. He said academicians Sindhu Prabhudessai and Melvin D'Costa were assigned one district each, and with their intervention, the registration has increased from 30 per cent to nearly 70 per cent.

"In Goa, we have covered 70 per cent of students under APAAR. The state is in the 12th position in the country, and soon we will be number 11," the official said. Schools across the state have welcomed the move. Madhav Krishna Kharvy, the headmaster of Shri Dayanand Arya High School in Neura, Dongrim (North Goa), said APAAR is a transformative move towards a more effective digital and accessible education system in India.

"It is a visionary move. I feel the APAAR ID will benefit our students. It is a lifetime passport for them," he said. Kharvy said students can use it for their benefit, as all academic records and achievements in a student's life can be stored under APAAR.