As part of the efforts to enrol all school students under the Aadhaar project, an online link was opened for teachers and heads of schools on Friday. This is meant for them to enter the details of students for their Unique Identification (UID) cards. The link is available on the website of the General Education Dept.
“Each school, whose student details have been collected, has been given a login id,” said K K Sajeev, District Coordinator, IT @ School Project. “This is to create an online database where the heads of schools can enter the information pertaining to their students.”
It is now compulsory that all school students must have a UID number. Last month, a government directive to the Director of Public Instructions (DPI) stated that students who were not enrolled in Aadhaar by March 2013, will no longer get benefits such as scholarships, grants, participation in schools festivals, Melas etc.
“The primary purpose of UID is that the DPI can get accurate student details. It is also to ensure that there is no duplication of beneficiaries,” said Sajeev. “For instance, there have been cases where aided schools have given false details and overstated their student numbers so as to avail of funds from the government.”
The enrolment process of students is the joint responsibility of IT@School Project, Akshaya Mission and Keltron. The heads of schools are expected to get in touch with the Akshaya centre nearest to them for the enrolment process. A camp is then held at the school where the implementing bodies collect biometric data of the students - fingerprints of all ten fingers, retina scan etc. Before the camp, forms with the student’s details are filled by teachers and signed by parents.
The IT@School project aims to provide about 60 lakh students in Kerala with the Unique Identity Number. This is as part of the central government’s UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) initiative, established in 2009. First conceived by the central Planning Commission, it was meant to provide identification for each resident of India and to enable efficient delivery of welfare services. Recently, it was stated that the government plans to link payment of welfare schemes and other government services to UID number by April 2014.