Aadhaar cards to be authenticated for UP Board students from this year

Prayagraj, May 10 The Aadhaar cards of students of Classes 10 and 12 in Uttar Pradesh for the ongoing academic session of 2023-24 will be authenticated.

Meanwhile, the Aadhaar cards of students taking admission in Classes 9 and 11 will also be certified.

This is being done so that the Aadhaar number can be made mandatory for students when they fill the examination forms of high school and intermediate next year, said board officials.

The process for authenticating the Aadhaar number follows the approval of the state government to the Uttar Pradesh Board. This process will put an effective check on the cases of impersonation which the Board faces while conducting exams for Classes 10 and 12 each year.

A total of 133 cases of impersonation were caught during the high school and intermediate exams of 2023. These impersonators were caught despite the Board matching the Aadhaar cards of registered candidates with the ones appearing in the exams.

In the wake of this, the Board has made Aadhaar cards mandatory for students appearing in Class 10 and 12 exams.

As per the new procedure, the Aadhaar authentication will be done first for the students (session 2023-24) of Classes 10 and 12.

The decision was taken following a meeting chaired by Director General (School Education), Vijay Kiran Anand.

Board secretary Divyakant Shukla has directed the principals of all schools to match the Aadhaar numbers, spelling of names, dates of birth, gender, and other details of the students who have taken admission in Classes 10th and 12th.

The details will be uploaded to the official Board website by May 20. The website will be operational from Thursday for matching details and making necessary amendments.

Similarly, if there is a difference or error in the spelling of a student's name, date of birth, gender in the Aadhaar card itself, then the students and parents concerned should be directed by the schools to get the changed done in the Aadhaar card so that all discrepancies are resolved in time, said officials.

Secretary Shukla said: "After getting permission from the government, the hurdle of making Aadhaar mandatory for the registration of students from Classes 9 to 12 for Uttar Pradesh Board has been removed. Last year, the Board had made Aadhaar mandatory for the registration of students from Classes 9 to 12 but the initiative had to be retracted after the government did not permit to go ahead with the exercise.