Uttar Pradesh students of Classes X to XII now need to authenticate their Aadhaar cards for the ongoing academic session (2023-24). Additionally, the Aadhaar cards of students taking admission to Classes IX to XII will be verified.
The state government has given its approval for the Uttar Pradesh Board to authenticate the Aadhaar numbers. This is being done so that the Aadhaar number can be made mandatory for students when they fill the examination forms for high school and intermediate next year, said Board officials, as mentioned in a report by IANS.
Why was this process initiated?
This process is aimed at putting an effective check on the cases of impersonation that the board faces while conducting exams for Classes X and XII each year. A total of 133 cases of impersonation were noted during the high school and intermediate exams this year. 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 for the Board exams. As per the new procedure, Aadhaar authentication will be done for the Class X and XII students (session 2023-24) in the first phase. 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 to Classes X and XII. The details will be uploaded to the Board's official website by May 20. The website will be operational from Thursday, May 11, for matching details and making necessary amendments.
If there is a difference or error in any of these details on the Aadhaar card itself, then the students and parents concerned should be directed by the schools to get the changes made so that all discrepancies are resolved in time, the officials said.
Officials explain
"After getting permission from the government, the hurdle of making Aadhaar mandatory for the registration of students from Classes IX to XII for Uttar Pradesh Board has been removed. Last year, the Board made Aadhaar mandatory for the registration of these students, but the initiative had to be retracted after the government did not permit them to go ahead with the exercise," Shukla explained.
"Now that the Aadhaar cards will be authenticated by us, the practice of impersonation would be curtailed to almost 100 per cent from the Board exams of Classes X and XII," he added, as per IANS.